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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23573065">I Don't Wanna Be Your Friend</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/animebawseqween/pseuds/animebawseqween'>animebawseqween</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>I Don't Wanna Be Your Friend [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - High School, Closeted Character, Crying, Friends to Lovers, Homophobia, Jealousy, M/M, Outing, Partying, Underage Drinking, Underage Sex</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 20:47:52</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Underage</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>21,729</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23573065</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/animebawseqween/pseuds/animebawseqween</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Leo was straight, he was definitely straight. He didn't have a crush on his best friend who was dating his other best friend, because he was straight. Leo liked girls, he always had, he was straight. But if that was true, why did he want to run his hands over his best friend's bare chest for days.<br/>***<br/>Featuring everyone's favourite tropes: Closeted best friend crushing on their friend and straight people not actually being straight. </p><p>Also, I am dedicating this to my best friend Ashleigh, because she is amazing and a huge PJO and HoO fan, and just the best person, especially because she supported me in a huge way after I came out. </p><p>Love you all and enjoy.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Jason Grace/Leo Valdez</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>I Don't Wanna Be Your Friend [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1885444</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>41</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>129</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Prologue</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Leo Valdez was straight, one hundred percent heterosexual. In fact, he was a goddamn ladies man. He was a Grade-A sex-machine. And… he was lying. He was short, fidgety, with unruly hair and a tendency to say whatever came into his head, no matter the situation. Most girls avoided him completely, and he hates to say that knows exactly why. </p><p>Although, maybe his new school will be different, but probably not. He doubts it though. When you live in an orphanage, because they simply couldn’t find anyone who wanted to foster him, you don’t look the best, and most people find you a little bit gross. </p><p>Today, though, his ‘siblings’ tried their best to make him look his best, just to leave his best first impression. Jess, gave him a shirt that she stole from her last family, it was a short-sleeve button up. Andy washed Leo’s jeans the night before, making sure that the owners of the orphanage didn’t catch him doing laundry without permission. Sev did his hair, although it was difficult to convince them to. Cam even shared a toothbrush from his personal stash with him, which was a huge honour for Leo, because Cam never shared his brushes with anyone. </p><p>As Leo walked into his first day of school, he actually felt kind of confident. And then he realized, that he was in a new environment, without anyone he knew, and no idea where he was going. Fuck, it was going to be a long day. </p><p>The voices of his new classmates whirred through his ears and their colourful clothes all turned into blurs as he tried to calm his racing heart. His ears rang with his mom’s voice, “ Leonidas, you are a Valdez, don’t be afraid of anything.” </p><p>“ Okay, Mom,” Leo muttered to himself as quiet as possible. “ Now, let’s go find the office.” </p><p>***</p><p>“ Okay, class, today we have new student joining us. His name is, uh, Leo-leo-leonardo? Leonardo Valdez,” the teacher said triumphantly, even though he had gotten it almost completely wrong.</p><p>“ Uhh, it’s Leonidas, but you can call me Leo,” he chuckled nervously. </p><p>“ Oh sorry, anyway, you can sit down anywhere there is room,” the teacher’s tone was so dismissive that Leo was half certain that he hadn’t paid attention at all. That didn’t matter though, because now he had to choose wear he was going to sit. There were a couple of empty seats, but most of them were beside people who looked like they didn’t want Leo to sit beside them. Mostly females who looked completely disgusted by the idea of being near him. “ Well, there goes my confidence,” Leo thought to himself. </p><p>He decided to cut his losses by sitting at one the one bench that had no one sitting at it. There was a pair of boys behind him who seemed disappointed, then he realized that the girl sitting in front of him was wearing almost nothing and was clearly making an effort to pop her butt out as much as possible. </p><p>“ This is an interesting school already,” Leo thought to himself and grabbed his binder from his bag, immediately drumming on the desk with his pencils, even though he promised himself he wouldn’t. This habit of his had always gotten him in trouble before, and he didn’t know why it wouldn’t stop, but he still couldn’t stop himself from doing it. It was oddly calming in the most amazing way for Leo, his hands always needed to be doing something and no matter what the teachers and adults told him, that would not change. </p><p>Their teacher began to teach, and everyone else took out their stuff and began writing. Apparently they were in the middle of a unit on functions. Leo tried his best to focus, and take notes that he would be able to read later, but it wasn’t very successful. </p><p>His mind began to wander and he went back to drumming on the table. The girl in front of him was huffing and twitching in annoyance, but Leo wasn’t paying attention to him.<br/>
Of course, it’s hard to not pay attention to some when they are poking you in the top of your head with the sharp end of a pencil.<br/>
“ What’s up?” Leo asked, smiling his awkward half grin. </p><p>“ Uhm, can you like you stop doing that,” she said in a stereotypical girl voice. “ Because honestly, you are being an annoying little bi-”</p><p>“ Mr. Smith I am so sorry I am late,” a loud voice yelled as the classroom door flew open and hit the wall, and some barged into the room. </p><p>“ Thank you for finally joining us Mr. Grace, take your seat please,” Mr. Smith grumbled and waved his hand dismissively. The person who barged into the room was, in Leo’s mind the most stereotypically attractive person Leo had ever seen. Like make male beauty standards, a teenage boy, and boom, the guy who interrupted class would appear. He was blonde with striking blue eyes, which reminded Leo of the lake near his Abuelita’s cabin. He was also built as hell, and had the stature of every guy who had ever picked on Leo in his life. </p><p>And he was sitting down right next to Leo. </p><p>“ Hey, man, are you new?” the guy asked as he took out his notebook. </p><p>“ Yeah, my name is Leo Valdez,” Leo answered as fast as possible. </p><p>“ Cool, I’m Jason Grace,” the guy, Jason, smiled at Leo. Of course his smile was beautiful too. </p><p>Leo guessed, because he was straight. Totally straight. 1000%</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Who's She?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“ Leo, are we on for game night?” Jason asked, setting his tray down on the lunch table. </p><p>“ Sure, Sev and Lucas are supposed to clean up from dinner anyway, and I don’t want to be there when all hell breaks loose,” Leo joked, pulling out screws on his latest device. Since they had become friends, Leo had found a mildly productive way to deal with his restlessness, being a mechanic. </p><p>He would show up to school covered in machine grease and who have random trinkets in his backpack and locker. One time, Jason gave Leo a shirt because he ripped his own, and then Leo ruined it by getting machine grease all over while he was making something for one of his siblings. Jason had said over and over again, but Leo felt bad to this day, and apologized ever chance he got. </p><p>“ What are you making?” Jason asked, knowing that Leo lit up talking about his inventions, no matter how far along in it he was. </p><p>“ I am not sure yet, I have pretty much made a miniature engine, not large enough to run a car, but I don’t know what I want to run it off of and I am not sure what I am going to hook it up to,” Leo screwed in another screw and put the device on their lunch table. </p><p>“ More important question, have you eaten anything today, or did you run out of the house too early for you to get food and decide to work on your device instead of getting lunch?” Jason knew the answer, and Leo could tell by the tone of his voice that he knew, but was humouring him anyway. </p><p>“ Sorry, Jay, Madame Carthin was the one on morning duty today. I couldn’t go into the kitchen,” Leo rubbed his stomach absentmindedly. </p><p>“ Leo, is it really that bad?” Jason asked, putting his hand on Leo’s like his mom always did with him. </p><p>“ No, no, no, you don’t get it,” Leo flailed his hands in front of him and leaned away from Jason. “ It’s just when Madame Carthin is there. Other than that, it’s great.” </p><p>It wasn’t true, this orphanage was worse than any of the others he had been to, and any of the foster homes that he had lived in. But if Jason worried, than other people would start to as well, and even though Jason assured Leo he would always have a place to stay with him, his siblings wouldn’t. And that was what he really worried about. </p><p>“ You sure?” The worry wouldn’t leave Jason’s voice.</p><p>“ I am one-thousand percent sure that I am perfectly fine,” Leo smiled, reaching to grab his machine but Jason smacked his hand. </p><p>“ No tinkering until you eating something,” Jason threw a pack of cookie and a Ziploc bag of carrots. Leo huffed, “ Fine, but only because you’ve got chocolate chip cookies today and not that oatmeal raisin crap you normally have.” </p><p>“ Shut up, you know that my mom doesn’t want Thalia and I to gain too much weight,” Jason sulked. </p><p> “ Sorry, Mr. Football Star,” Leo joked. </p><p>“ Football star, I didn’t know you played football, Jason,” a girl said from behind Leo. </p><p>She was Leo’s height, but other similarities were few and far between. She had choppy hair, but it looked good anyway and there were feathers braided into it. She was wearing a huge puffy ski jacket which can’t have been comfortable since it was only late summer, along with a band shirt and jeans. She was wearing plain black combat boots on her feet, and she looked like the kind of person who would use them to stomp on his throat. She was attractive, Leo assumed, but right now he was just upset that she was interrupting his and Jason’s conversation. </p><p>“ Yeah, I’ve been wide-receiver since freshman year. You wanna sit down, Piper,” Jason asked the girl, who proceeded to sit down beside Jason across from Leo. </p><p>Leo guessed he must have been giving them both some serious stink eye because Jason cleared his throat awkwardly. “ Leo, this is Piper McLean, she just transferred here.” </p><p>Leo was not happy, but he schooled his expression, “ Cool, I’m Leo Valdez.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Hot, hot, hot</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“ So, who is Piper? And why are we suddenly friends with her? Leo asked Jason, sitting down in ‘his’ sport on his friends’ couch. </p><p>Leo and Jason have been having movie/game nights and sleepovers almost every week since they became friends in freshman year. Jason had old clothes that he kept because they were Leo’s size. Jason had bought a new bed so that Leo didn’t have to stay on the floor anymore. Jason’s parents were called ‘Auntie’ and ‘Uncle’. They were practically family now, and that was the way they were all comfortable with it. </p><p>Leo would love to call Jason’s family his second family, and their home his second home, but in truth, they would be his first. </p><p>“ I don’t know, she seems cool to me,” Jason shrugged, but his answer wasn’t as measured he thought. And Leo pounced at the opportunity. </p><p>“ Oh, so you don’t just want to be friends with Piper because you think she is hot?” Leo nudged Jason’s shoulder, before grabbing the box of video games. </p><p>He expected that Jason would defend himself, he did not expect that Jason would simply begin to blush and stammer. “ Uhh, I, uhh, I c-c-c, umm, j-just p-p-put th-the g-g-game in, L-leo.”</p><p>Leo didn’t know why, but he began to burn with some kind of negative emotion. He was not a violent person in normal circumstances (mostly because he was an orphan and he was used to people beating up for reacting to their crap), but he suddenly felt the urge to throttle Piper and dump her into ditch in the middle of Alaska. She made him so upset, and he had no idea why he felt that way. Logically, Piper hasn’t done anything to offend Leo, but that anger was a nag in the back of his head. </p><p>“ Hey, Leo, Leo, you okay man?” Jason asked, hovering very closely to Leo. So close that Leo could feel his breathing on his is skin. The space in between the boys suddenly grew hot, almost unbearably, and Leo suddenly felt the need to be as far away from Jason as possible. On the other hand, Jason’s face was all scrunched because he was frowning with worry, and Leo felt the need to hug him and tell him it was nothing. Even though it wasn’t nothing. </p><p>He opted for the former and went over to Jason’s couch, “ Nothing. Just got a little distracted.” </p><p>“ Are you sure? You know I will always be here for you right, dude? You are my best friend, we are pretty much family.” Those words made Leo uncomfortable, but he couldn’t put his finger on why. </p><p>“ Yeah, but let’s just forget about it, we have some Fallout 4 to play,” Leo covered up.</p><p>“ Alright, let’s do this,” Jason smiled, grabbing the controllers. </p><p>***</p><p>“ Hey, Leo, I didn’t know you had stayed over last night,” Jason’s mom said as she grabbed the pancake mix from the cabinet. </p><p>“ Yeah, sorry I didn’t ask, Auntie Beryl,” Leo apologized, fiddling with his fingers in nervousness. </p><p>“ Leo, Honey, don’t feel guilty. Although, if your guilt can get you to wake up Thalia, I will take it,” Beryl smiled, knowing that Leo wouldn’t do it. Hell, no one would do it unless they hated themselves because Thalia was scary as fuck normally, and after being woken up was ten times worse. </p><p>“ Absolutely not, I will do so many things when I feel guilty, but putting my life on the line waking up Thalia is not one of them,” Leo joked. Beryl laughed loudly as he did, “ Understandable, I wouldn’t want to either.” </p><p>“ Actually, Thalia is already awake,” a voice said from the top of the stairs. It was Thalia. And she was… smiling? “ I decided to try being a healthier person, and that means waking up early and eating breakfast. Oh hey, Leo, I didn’t know you were here. How’s Jason, I am assuming he’s  not awake yet, based on the fact that nothing is broken yet.” </p><p>“ Who’s the girl, Sis,” Jason’s morning voice could be heard from the end of the hallway. “ Also, I am awake, and Leo put the fork down before you stab yourself.”</p><p>Leo complied, but before he could say anything, Thalia had Jason in a headlock, “ Just because I am trying to be a better person does not mean I am trying to chase after a girl who is probably not into me just because I saw her when I was working at ‘Mama Jeannie’s’.” </p><p>“ Thalia, let go of Jason,” Beryl said. “ And now I will ask, who’s the girl? What’s she like?” </p><p>“ Diana, that’s all you’re getting,” Thalia answered. Jason’s family might ever be able to replace his own, but god Leo loved them all a whole lot.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Cast Party?!</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>At this point, Leo thought he should be used to Piper’s presence by now, but he was not. Whenever she appears, Leo get startled, before calming down so that she never knew he got upset. In fact, after that initial anger, Leo and Piper got along pretty well. </p><p>She was also a minority, so she and Leo enjoy making jokes about white people being stupid, and then laughed maniacally at Jason turning red and slinking down. She seemed cool, and like she didn’t give zero shits about anything really, which was something Leo respected. </p><p>Although, Leo wasn’t comfortable telling her about his family situation yet, and since she has already met Beryll and Thalia, she keeps asking to see photos of Leo’s family at least. He thought that this was pretty reasonable, seeing as the first thing most people do when they meet a new person is talk about their family. Leo assumed this was just another thing that made him different than the rest of the kids he knew. </p><p>She also brought the best food to school, which she never ate because she always bought pizza from the school cafeteria, because she didn’t ‘want to be so different compared to other kids’. Since Leo never had a lunch because he always forgot to make his in the morning. </p><p>Today, Piper had given Leo a simple sandwich, but he was barely eating it because of the machine in front of him. He had taken apart an old laptop that Beryl had given him, and was trying to fix it. Most people would argue that the laptop was irreparable, but Leo knew that he would find a way to fix it. Especially because Beryl told him he could have the laptop if he managed to fix it and give her the files that are on it, that she wasn’t able to get out of the chip and thought that it was possible that she would be able to get it off of the computer if it was working. </p><p>“ Hey, Leo, whatcha working on?” Jason asked as he sat down with him and Piper. </p><p>“ Fixing that your computer your mom gave me, you think I have the money to buy this myself,” Leo snorted. </p><p>“ Cool, my mom seems really pressed about getting those files,” Jason sat down and began to shovel food into his mouth, he clearly had somewhere to be. Probably a football thing. </p><p>The group simply sat in silence, reveling in their activities and submerging into the noise of their peers going on around them. Then Piper cleared her voice very loudly. </p><p>“ What’s up Pipes?” Jason spat food everywhere as he tried to speak. </p><p>“ I was just wondering if you guys wanted to come with me to a party this weekend?” Piper asked them, setting down the book she was reading. </p><p>Parties were something Jason and Leo never went to, the last time ‘they’ were invited to a party, was Stephanie Chang’s birthday the year before. Stephanie had actually only invited Jason, because she wanted to get with him, and when both he and Leo showed up, she was not happy. She had screamed that they were ruining her birthday party and that Leo was way too ugly to ever be invited to one of her parties. Yeah, that bruised Leo’s self confidence and ego just a bit. Just a Russia sized bit. </p><p>“ What kind of party?” Jason asked, having finally chewed all the food in his mouth. </p><p>“ Oh you know, just one of my dad’s cast parties. It won’t be huge, only three hundred-ish people. He told me that I could bring a couple of friends because I told them that I actually have friends at this school,” Piper explained. </p><p>Leo and Jason’s jaws dropped as Piper explained. How could someone say that a party of three hundred-ish people is not a big party, it’s a ridiculously big party. Not to mention that she said it was a “ cast party”. A cast party. People who held cast parties a) had tons of money and b) were a part of a cast of either a play or movie. How was Piper so calm about this? Leo was shocked. </p><p>“ Wait?! Did you say ‘cast party?!’” Jason’s eyes bulged out of his head like a cartoon character. </p><p>“ Yeah, a cast and crew party for my dad’s new movie,” Piper seemed confused for a couple seconds but then realized what she said. “ Oh my god, you guys didn’t know that my dad was an actor? I am such an idiot.” </p><p>“ No, Piper, no you didn’t!” Leo began to laugh, just trying to wrap his head around this whole thing. Leo’s two friends, along with him, represented every kind of life within their group. </p><p>Just as Piper was beginning to explain, a beeping noise came from Jason’s watch, “ Crap, by guys, I have got to go and see the rest of the team about practice. Coach has something to tell us.” </p><p>As Jason ran out of the cafeteria, Leo turned to Piper, “ Start explaining, Princess,” he smirked. </p><p>“ Don’t call me that, but okay,” Piper huffed and started her story.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Home for the First Time</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“ Leo, are you going to help with the chores or not?” Jen asked, barging into the teen boys room. “ The only reason you’ve been able to skip out for this long because Madame Kane stepped out and now we are all alone.” </p><p>“ Right, I totally forgot that it was Saturday, we have chores,” Leo lied, but he smiled awkwardly and scratched the back of his neck to cover up. </p><p>Jen wasn’t having it, but Jen wasn’t the confrontational twin between her and Jess. Jen was the supporter. She was the twin that you went to when something went wrong and you just wanted hugs and some love. Jess was the twin you went to when you were done crying and wanted revenge. </p><p>“ Well, Sev has done all the laundry, but it needs to be folded. Cam needs help cleaning his room or the Madame’s will make him spend a night in the ‘back room’ again. You know why we can’t have that so some needs to help him. I think that is it, but you can ask everyone else,” Jen explained. </p><p>“ Cool, I don’t think you guys want me to fold the laundry, but I have no problem helping Cam with his room. Especially if the ‘back room’ is hanging in the balance.”</p><p>The ‘back room’ wasn’t a part of the house at all. It was tiny little run down shack at the back left corner of the property. It might have been the gardener's shed back when it was owned by the people before The Madame’s bought it. Now, it was a punishment, and it was awful. There were rats and possibly a possum, but that was unconfirmed. Kids would have to spend nights sleeping there at a time. This was usually a punishment for disrespecting property, like not cleaning their rooms or breaking things. It was terrrifying for Cam, he couldn’t stand the dark or sleeping alone. He was only eight years old for god's sake. Leo would do anything to keep little Cam out of that shack, because it would break his heart to see him do it. </p><p>***</p><p>Leo was super proud of himself. Cam’s room was completely changed. </p><p>The boy used to keep his things in two massive piles that he kept on the floor. How Cam had managed to keep his room like this without getting him and Sev, who he shared his room with, in big trouble was beyond Leo. </p><p>However, Leo had managed to get all the sorted out and get everything put away as Cam cleaned everything to make sure that Madame Kane would have nothing to get him in trouble for. Because if something was dirty, Madame Kane would find it. That was fact. </p><p>“ HEY! EVERYONE GET READY TO STAND AT ATTENTION! MADAME KANE IS BACK!” Jess screamed and immediately, the entire house began to scramble around. </p><p>Cam leapt off of his freshly made bad and ran to the door of him and Sev’s room. Leo dashed down the hallway to stand in the doorway of his own room. He could hear the others stomping into place just as the door flew open. </p><p>“ Children, have you finished cleaning?” Madame Kane’s deceptively sweet voice rang through the house. </p><p>Leo heard someone’s voice mumble in answer. Madame Kane was easily one of the nicer of the four Madame’s, her and Madame Smeen were easily the best of the four, they were just the most understanding and the kindest. The other two were not so kind. </p><p>“ Children, come down here and come into the kitchen,” Madame Kane demanded. </p><p>Leo made sure to not run, and grabbed Cam to remind him to not run either, lest Madame Kane yell at them. “ Cam, I know you don’t like doing it, but I need you to be quiet and keep your head down. This sounds like something serious and I don’t want you to get in trouble because Madame didn’t think you were taking it seriously.” </p><p>Cam just nodded and continued to walk, gripping Leo’s hand. </p><p>They were the last people in the room because they were the only ones on the second floor. Madame Kane was sitting in the kitchen with a drink in her hand. She looked really stressed and that was concerning because when someone was stressed, especially the Madame’s, they were easier to piss off and upset. </p><p>“ Kids, we are going to be having some people come in next week to look at the orphanage and see whether or not they want to adopt, so I expect you all to be on your best behaviours or there will be serious repercussions that I can guarantee you will not enjoy,” Madame kane said sternly. Really trying to hammer her point home. “ Do you understand?”</p><p>“ Yes, Madame Kane,” all the children muttered. </p><p>“ Excellent, now start getting your meal started, I will be upstairs in the office working if there is an emergency. If not, please leave me alone and figure things out yourself,” Madame Kane sauntered upstairs and completely disappeared into the office and Leo swore that everyone released a collective sigh as soon as they were alone.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. She said, oh, she said</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“ Leo, you have a friend!” Cam shouted up the stairs. Leao heard him turn back to someone down on the main floor. </p><p>“ Wait, Leo has friends?!” Jess and Sev yelled in unison as Leo grabbed his jacket. He knew who was there, and he was waiting to see how Jason would respond. It would probably be with an awful joke, knowing him. </p><p>“ Well, I am pretty sure I am real. You, on the other hand, are some disembodied voices!” Jason called and Leo snorted. It was in fact, an awful joke. </p><p>“ Leo, this friend of yours is cool,” Jess said as he passed the twins’ bedroom. </p><p>Leo couldn’t help but smile from ear to ear. The fact that his ‘siblings’ were accepting of Jason, despite this being an informal “meeting”, was just so comforting. Leo felt like his chest was four times lighter for a reason that Leo was yet to wrap his head around, he just knew that he liked it. </p><p>“ Who is driving?” Leo asked the second that he got down there. He assumed it was Thalia because neither Jason nor Leo had a license, but he just wanted to keep the conversation off of outfits because damn it, Jason had him beat again. </p><p>Leo had just worn some black skinny jeans, a deep red button up and finished it off with Sev’s white moto jacket. He was just trying to be passable for this party. He didn’t own any different categories of clothes like most people do, because he didn’t have any money to buy that many clothes. He literally slept in the clothes that he wore that day because he hadn’t owned pajamas since he went into the system. </p><p>Jason was not in the same condition that Leo was. Jason had the money to buy special party clothes, and clearly had done some shopping. He was wearing fancy white jeans with massive rips in it, the rips however, was covered with patches of leather in both gold and black. He was wearing a plain band tee from a band Leo did not recognize, with a black plaid on top. He clearly put a lot of thought into his outfit, which wasn’t super different from what he always did. Jason always looked put together even if he was just wearing a t-shirt and jeans. </p><p>And yet somehow, the outfit he had on got to Leo. He had no idea why, but somehow, Jason really seemed like the centre of attention in his ‘party’ outfit. </p><p>“ Thalia, duh, I am planning on doing this somewhat legally,” Jason smiled opened the door to his mom’s car.</p><p>“ Why do you still do that? It’s not like I still have those bandages on my hand from last year,” Leo got in the car and buckled up. </p><p>“ I don’t know,” Jason turned his nose up in a joking way. “ I was simply raised a gentleman.” </p><p>This got him a very hard smack on the head from Thalia. “ You were not raised a gentleman. You simply like the feeling of being in charge, and doing things for Leo let’s you do that. I love you Jay, you you aren’t fooling me.” </p><p>Leo flushed deep red down to his shoulders and threw his head into his hands. Why would Thalia say something like that? Sure, Leo liked to go along with things that Jason said, but that was because Jason always made an effort to do things that Leo would also like and he never felt like Jason’s ideas would get them in trouble. This doesn’t make Leo too submissive does it? No, he was just a good friend. A really good friend. And Jason was Leo’s only friend. </p><p>After Thalia’s comment, they sat in the car in awkward silence all the way to Piper’s house. And it was a very long drive because Piper lived in the nicest part of town. It was just multi-million dollar house after multi-million dollar house for the last five minutes of the drive. Thalia and Jason just kept their eyes on the road like this was normal, but Leo couldn’t help but stare in wonderment. He had never seen something so amazing in his life. </p><p>“ Jay, what’s Piper’s address again?” Thalia asked. </p><p>“ Sixteen, Everwood Crescent,” Jason mumbled so softly that Leo barely heard him. </p><p>Leo was starting to feel a little bit nervous and he was very certain that it was because this was his first party. It was not because he was apparently not on speaking terms with his best friend and he was probably going to have to sit awkwardly in the corner while Jason made out with a hot girl. It would probably be Piper as well, by the way Leo luck has been going these days. </p><p>As Jason and Leo stepped around the car to look at Piper’s house. All the houses in Piper’s neighbourhood were massive, but Piper’s was one of the biggest. It was currently all it up and there were tons of people inside, and some outside, dancing with red solo cups. They all looked halfway drunk already, which did not help Leo’s nerves. </p><p>“ Okay, Jason, call me or text when you think you want to come home. If you end up passed out drunk and sleeping here, I will pick you up tomorrow and cover for you with Mom. Don’t worry, okay by have fun!” After that, she just sped off. </p><p>Jason turned to Leo and grabbed his friends shoulder, “ Leo, it’s going to great okay. Don’t get into your head before you can have fun.”</p>
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<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Parties Aren't Always Fun</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Leo had thought that partying was this magical thing. That the second that you stepped into it, you would just start enjoying the energy from other people. That you immediately start to bond with the others around you. </p><p>It was not that for Leo. There were too many people, they all reeked of something bitter and kind of rotten smelling, Leo latter realized that it was liquor he was smelling. They were dancing anywhere that they coul, not caring about whether or not they bumped into other people. In fact, most of them took as an opportunity to get, a little too close with the random stranger and go to Grind-town on them. </p><p>Normally, girls were not throwing themselves at Leo, for certain reasons pertaining to his clothing, face and height, among other things. At this party however, he had been “danced with” four times.</p><p>He didn’t know where Jason was. He told Leo he was going to grab Piper, along with some drinks, but that was a while ago. Leo was just standing in the middle of what he assumed was Piper’s living room, frozen, trying to not upset anyone around him. </p><p>“ Hey, who are you?” Someone tapped Leo on the shoulder, but he didn’t see who because he couldn’t turn around. </p><p>“ Hey I am talking to you. The little guy with the curly dark brown hair,” the voice said again. Leo managed to nudge some people out of the way and turn around. There was a massive mountain of a guy standing in front of Leo. </p><p>He was easily six and a half feet taller, if not taller. He looked like people paid him to work out because his muscles might have been the size of Leo’s head. He looked like the typical muscular jock, even more so than Jason. It was borderline, gross how big this guy was. His outfit wasn’t really helping him out. He had one a super tight muscle tee and the kind of shorts that are supposed to be loose and baggy, but they were tight on him in a really strange way. </p><p>“ Hey man, what do you need?” Leo asked, trying to sound as ‘bro-ish’ as possible so as to not get beaten up. </p><p>“ You’re cute, come here,” the guy immediately made grabby hands towards Leo and tried to wrap his around him. He was almost successful, but he was a little too intoxicated, and Leo was a little too small for him to succeed. Leo immediately pushed his way through the crowd, trying desperately to get away from this guy. </p><p>Leo had never felt so grossed out in his life. Sure, the guy being gay was fine with Leo, he didn’t care. But the fact that anyone would try to grab another person without asking anything or making sure that they were okay with that. Sure, grinding on someone at a party was one thing, but this guy was literally trying to grab Leo out of a crowd and do god knows what with him. </p><p>Another person grabbed Leo’s shoulder as he reached as the edge of the crowd, “ Hey, Kiddo, you don’t look so good.” </p><p>Leo jerked away and turned to whoever grabbed him and saw a mid-twenties person standing there. “ Okay, you clearly are not okay. Come with me. I know some people who might make you feel better.” </p><p>Unlike the guy before, this person didn’t grab Leo, but waited for Leo to be okay with coming with him. Leo gave a leap of faith and went with them. </p><p>He followed them down a hallway in Piper’s house, the music was slowly fading, but Leo’s guard was not coming down anytime soon. The person he was following opened the door to a room Leo couldn’t see inside, but there was nothing that Leo could hear going on inside. </p><p>“ Go on inside if you want to, I promise they won’t hurt you,” the stranger said, gesturing for Leo to enter. </p><p>Leo looked inside and saw a couple of adults, maybe teenagers, sitting inside, one was smoking and the others were just sitting laughing and talking. This looked private, like a clique thing that Leo shouldn’t intrude on. </p><p>“ Hey everyone, I found this kid wandering around Mr. McLean’s party. Don’t know what he’s doing here, but he looks like he could use some advice.” </p><p>Leo stepped awkwardly into the room, only to be enveloped into a hug by one of the boys in the room. “ Kiddo, loosen up a bit. No one here is going to hurt you.”</p><p>“ What do you need? Why do you look so stressed,” someone asked Leo and pushed him into a chair. </p><p>“ A guy tried to grab me at I just feel not so great,” Leo muttered. </p><p>“ Wait, that’s serious, do you want to talk about it?” </p><p>“ Not really, I don’t know any of you,” Leo joked, causing everyone to laugh a ton. </p><p>“ Well, for starters, my name is Luke, Luke Castellan,” the boy who hugged Leo introduced himself. </p><p>“ Cool, my name is Leo, short for Leonidas Valdez. You can call me Leo.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Sorry for taking so like to post, I was in the smallest bit of writer's block but I am over it now. Hope you all enjoyed the chapter :)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. What if I was?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“ So, Leo, I know you didn’t want to talk to us about the incident, but I have to ask. Do you have a friend here with you? Someone to make sure you get home safe and not alone?” Ethan asked, sipping something was steaming from the cup. </p><p>Ethan and Luke seemed cool, and Charles and Silena were amazing. All in all, Leo had been sitting, talking and with them for a while. Ethan and Luke had apparently been friends for their entire lives and were practically brothers. Silena and Charles were dating, and Silena had been a friend of Luke’s for a while. They had simply become extras in Piper’s dad’s new movie, and they were invited to the cast party. They were all pretty much a close knit group of people. </p><p>Every close group needs some glue, and that glue was Clarisse. She was the person that had rescued Leo, and it turns out she was a girl (Leo hadn’t really cared about her pronouns, she just seemed cool). Apparently Clarisse was usually a highly aggressive person, but was fiercely protective of her friends, and anyone she saw in trouble. She had practically taken every member of their group out of a bad situation and she even set Silena up with Charles because she thought he was a good guy. Clarisse seemed like a great person to Leo, even if she was a bit of a tsundere. </p><p>“ I do, I was invited by my friend Piper McLean, and my best friend Jason Grace came here with me,” Leo explained. </p><p>“ Wait, wait, wait, you were invited by who?!” Silena squeals, shoving herself roughly off the bean-ba she had been cuddling on with Charles. </p><p>Silena was looking at Leo with a wide-eyed expression on her face, “ Yeah, my friend Piper invited me because she didn’t want to be alone at her dad’s party.” </p><p>Everyone but Charles “ooed” and Leo was super confused, but decided to just smile and let the night go on. Everyone else began to discuss something with each other and he couldn’t hear, Charles excluded. </p><p>After a couple of minutes, and Ethan getting smacked twice on the head by Clarisse, the small group dispersed and turned back to Leo, who had been consuming the chips on the table like a champ. </p><p>“ So, Leo, are you sure that this Piper McLean is just a friend of yours?” Luke asked teasingly, wiggling his eyebrows.</p><p>Leo flushed super red. Piper was pretty, he guessed, but he was really interested in her. If anything, Jason was the one trying to be more than friends with Piper. </p><p>“ Piper is just a friend, in fact, I think she might be interested in my best friend Jason,” Leo dropped his voice to a mumble. “ Which makes sense because he is way more attractive than me.” </p><p>“ What was that?” Ethan asked.  </p><p>“ N-n-nothing. Just talking to myself,” Leo covered up, he chuckled awkwardly, but the others weren’t convinced. </p><p>Specifically Silena, she had her eyebrows raised and her lips were squished together tightly. “ Right,” she said, drawing the word out for several seconds. “ So, tell me about this Jason Grace kid.” </p><p>Leo flushed even more red, and he was almost sure that he was going to get a nose bleed. “ I-I, u-uhh, u-mm-mm…” Leo couldn’t stop stuttering. “ Well, he’s blonde and he has these blue eyes that are ridiculously colourful. Almost like blue lightning. He’s 6’0 tall last time we measured ourselves, which sucks because I am only 5’6. I can barely make it to like lip level when I am next to it.” </p><p>“ Oh really,” Clarisse said in a strange tone. “ Tell us more about him.” </p><p>“ Well, I don’t know, he is really, really nice. Like i can’t stress how nice he is, because you just have to experience it to get it. He is always making me laugh, which can sometimes be annoying because we have Math class together and we sit beside each other and our teacher is constantly getting me in trouble. Jason is like the golden boy, which honestly he deserves because even though he is constantly distracting me, he still manages to get really good grades. And he is an amazing football player, which makes sense because he is pretty buff, but like the overly buff kind were it’s gross.</p><p>“ The girl who gets to marry him one day will honestly be one of the luckiest person ever, because he is so unbelievably selfless. I don’t have parents, and I don’t have a job, so Jason,  buys me a ton of stuff. I keep telling him that he shouldn’t waste his money on me, but he usually just grabs my cheeks and says, ‘ Leonidas Valdez, I want to buy you things, shut up.’ Honestly, Pipe is so unbelievably lucky that Jason has his eyes on her, because even if they only date for a while, he will put so much time into her and he will pretty much abandon anyone else for her.” </p><p>Everyone else gave each other looks to the side, Leo had no idea what they were silently communicating about. He felt a little bit embarrassed because he never thought that he would tell people who he only met an hour ago about Jason. The way that Leo thought about Jason because those were kind of private. As weird as that sounded, it was true. </p><p>“ Leo, do you have a crush on Jason?” Silena asked, and the entire room felt tense. </p><p>“ I don’t know,” was all he could say. What if he was? Would Jason hate him for it? He didn’t want to lose the person closest to him.</p>
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<a name="section0009"><h2>9. The New Boy</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>So quick note, this has my first two OG characters in this chapter, Sei and Shin Yang-Min. Shin is the new kid in Leo's orphanage, and Sei only get's mentioned, but she's his younger sister who's seven-years-old at this point in the story.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Leo had been in a small funk since the party. He wasn’t sure if he was still a little bit weirded out that he got grabbed, or if it was about the entire conversation about whether or not he was in love with Jason. </p><p>Like, of course he wasn’t in love with Jason. He was just Jason’s best friend. He wasn’t in love with Jason, Jason was just the only person that Leo trusted, and the person Leo is most attached to. Jason was just the only person that Leo had only taken the time to form a close bond with since the death of his family. Jason has been the one constant in Leo’s life for the past two and a half years, and he would do anything to not have Jason leave him. But he wasn’t in love with him, right? </p><p>Leo decided to give up and look up the knew show that Piper had suggested to him, ‘Elite’. </p><p>~~~</p><p>After watching way too many episodes of ‘Elite,’ Leo was still not sure about whether or not he was in love with Jason or not. Honestly, Leo had never thought this hard about anyone in his life. None of the girls he had ever been into, or even considered thinking about, had ever been this thought consuming. </p><p>“ But Jason isn’t just anyone. He is a close personal friend and also another boy. Admitting to be into him, also means questioning his sexuality and everything you have ever thought about yourself. This requires thinking for more than two seconds,” Leo reminded himself, hitting his head off of the wall of his room. </p><p>He didn’t have time to put anymore thought into this, or anymore blows to his head, because a knock rang at the door, “ Leo, can I come in.” It was the one voice in the house that Leo wasn’t used to yet, Shinola Yang-Min. Shin for short. He was the new boy in the orphanage. </p><p>Shin’s parents were these super conservative Japanese doctors. When Shin came out as trans, his parents kicked him out and officially got rid of him when they didn’t like it. Shin was also the second coolest person that Leo had ever met, next to Jason. </p><p>“ Sure thing, this is your room now too,” Leo leaned away from the wall so Shin woudn’t be able to tell he was trying to crack his own skull wide open. </p><p>“ Thanks my guy, I am not used to having my own space. My sister and I had to share a room in my old house,” Shin explained. </p><p>“ Cool, was she nice?” Leo knew that he had to be really careful when asking about Shin’s family, and asking if someone was ‘nice’ or not was code for whether or not they were supportive of him being trans and himself in his trest form. </p><p>He knew he had guessed right though, when a small smile crept it’s way onto Shin’s normally schooled features, “ Yeah, she was great.” </p><p>“ Cool, I’ve never have siblings. I always wished that I could, but I always knew in the back of my mind that it wasn’t going to happen. Turns out I was right,” Leo said, trying to mask the sadness in his voice. </p><p>“ Siblings are amazing, even though they can get a little bit annoying sometimes. My sisters name was Sei, it means beautiful in japanese. I always thought it was super fitting because she was the cutest kid ever, and she had such a beautiful heart and spirit. When our parents went away to visit my mom’s dying grandma, I sat her down in our room and told her that I was a boy. The first thing she did was ask whether that meant she could go over to see her friend Cathy more because I would be able to play video games with her older brother.” </p><p>Leo couldn’t help but laugh his ass off, “ Dude, that sounds amazing. Sei sounds great.” </p><p>“ Yeah, I just wish that the rest of my family reacted that way,” Shin tried to laugh it off, but Leo could tell that there was something more going on underneath. He recognized his tone of voice exactly from when he used to talk about his family, specifically his mom. God, he used to get so choked up about anything involving his mother. When someone used his full name, he would tear-up thinking about how his mom had the same last name. When someone would say ‘Emerald’ he would choke-up at how it was so close to ‘Ezmerelda’. </p><p>Leo got up and walked over to Shin’s bed, placing an arm around the taller boys shoulders, “ Well, I am not Cathy’s older brother, but I do have a best friend, who I might be into but that’s a story for another time, who has some pretty cool games, and a rocking consol. You are invited to come with me to see him any time, after I get his clearance that it’s okay. How does that sound?” </p><p>Shin looked at him and smiled, “ That sounds fun, but I want to hear more about the fact you are into him.” </p><p>“ Absolutely not!” Leo screams and scampers away from Shin. “ Stay away demon.”</p>
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<a name="section0010"><h2>10. I definitely am</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>I don't know why I waited until now to do this, but this chapter is dedicated to aphrodite (cabin seventy) because they liked my blue lightning compairison and even gifted me a work because of it. So thanks.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“ Leo Valdez,” the receptionist called out. </p><p>Leo was freaking out, and the eerie silence of the waiting room and the stare that everyone gave him when he got up were not helping. </p><p>Luke and Ethan had told him that this place was a total safe space that it would be a good place for him to get a second opinion for free. </p><p>***</p><p>“ Hey, Leo, how are you doing man?” Luke had picked up right on the first ring, which was nice for Leo. </p><p>“ I have been thinking pretty non-stop about what you guys all said at the party, and I was wondering if there is anywhere I can just get a second opinion and maybe talk to people? It has to be free though, I can’t afford any kind of price.” Leo didn’t even know what he was hoping to get from Luke. There was no way there was somewhere you could just talk about whether or not you might be gay…</p><p>“ Sure thing, there’s this place near Sixth Avenue called, ‘So Much More’. It is a charity for LGBTQ+ kids who might need counselling, or new friends. They even have rooms for kids who have been kicked out of their houses. You should check out their website,” Luke was a Class A lifesaver, yet again. </p><p>Leo smiled as Luke hung up on him, “ God, if you exist, please get Luke into heaven. That boy deserves it, end of story.”</p><p>***</p><p>Leo thought that there would be a therapist in the room when he got there, he was mistaken. He was sitting alone in a small room with a desk and two comfortable chair on either side. Leo had been instructed to sit on one side of the desk and wait for the therapist to come and see him. He had been waiting for almost ten minutes now, but hell,  it felt more like ten years. </p><p>Just as Leo was about to fish into his bag and grab something to tinker with, a therapist walked into the room. “ Are you Leonidas Valdez?” Was all she asked. </p><p>Her was looked cold and she was definitely the stoic type. She definitely seemed like the kind of person that Leo would normally avoid, but right now, he was desperate for someone to help him out. If this scary woman was a specialist, then he would just have to get over his fear. </p><p>“ Uhh, yeah. That’s, umm, me, but everyone calls me Leo,” he tried his best to look not nervous, but he knew that, like every other time that he did this, that he was failing. Hard. </p><p>“ Well, my name is Dr. Amor, I have been assigned to your particular case. I read the case file, and it simply says, and I quote, ‘Would like second opinion on sexuality. Might be gay, gave me gay twink vibes.’ I am not sure who took your profile, but they will be getting talked to.”</p><p>Leo didn’t know what ‘twink’ meant, but he was pretty sure whoever took his statement was a legend. “ Yeah, I can’t talk about the whole ‘gay vibes’ thing, but that is what I am here for. I just have a small suspicion that I might be in love with my best friend Jason. Which, I mean, if I am, I might be pretty lucky, because Jason is attractive a heck.” </p><p>Dr. Amor smiled to herself slightly. “ Leo, I don’t really think that I can help you with that, I am pretty sure that people who are not into their best friends do not ask if they are in love with their best friends or not.” </p><p>“ Wait, you have never had someone come in and ask something like this who didn’t come out the way they were before?” Leo was shocked. He thought that all bro’s had feelings like this sometimes.</p><p>“ No Leo, not many people think about these things. With the exception of the actual gay ones, but just to test, I need you to close your eyes and tell me the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Jason.” </p><p>‘Say no more,’ Leo joked in his own head. “ Umm, well, funny, sweet, handsome as all hell. He has the most amazing laugh. And he makes the dumbest jokes, but I can’t help but laugh no matter what. And he plays football, but he isn’t that typical football jerk. And because of those stupid muscles, he gives the most amazing hugs ever. I remember the time that I had to leave the house I am living in and I went to see him, and he just wrapped his stupid strong arms around me and I just immediately forgot about all the things i had been upset about. And he smells amazing, like freshly fallen rain. And oh my god, I am in love with Jason!” </p><p>Leo just sat there in shock, his eyes were still closed. Dr. Amor laughed at Leo, “ Leo, I think love is very strong, but you definitely have a crush on Jason.” </p><p>“ Thanks, Doc,” Leo said and dashed out of the room. He was definitely not athletic at all, but he managed to run all the way home. He didn’t even stop when he heard Jess asking him what’s wrong. </p><p>“ Oh shit, I like Jason. I am gay and into my best friend,” then he truly realized what his situation truly was. “ Oh no, what the hell am I going to do know.”</p>
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<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Finally a Teenager</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>For some reason, having secrets made life ten times harder. Leo was so paranoid that someone could know his secret that everyone became a suspect and Leo’s nerves were ten times worse. He was completely avoiding Jason and Piper, who were becoming way closer than they ever had been. It was very obvious that they were into each other and flirting. It had been two weeks and at this point, Leo wasn’t sure whether or not he was avoiding them to keep his secret or because they were definitely going to start dating, and definitely soon.</p><p>Lucky enough for him, Shin had just started at Leo’s high school so he could just pretend that it was just that. Yep, totally not because he was keeping a huge secret from the two closest people in his life. Yeah, he just wanted to spend time with his new favourite ‘sibling’, nothing more than that. </p><p>“ Hey, Leo, I need to ask you something,” Shin said, pausing the anime that they were watching on his phone. </p><p>“ What’s up, man?” Leo asked, starting to sweat a little, because Shin was kind of a wild card because, let’s be honest, Shin was the most random person Leo had never met. He literally decided that he was going to wear platform shoes to school today, and he went from 5’6 to almost 6’0 tall and Leo thought it was super unfair. Leo wished he had that power, he did not own platform shoes though. </p><p>“ What’s up with your best friend? You know, the one you are definitely into even though you denied it last time. I haven’t even met this boy, and you say he is your best friend. Is it because you are embarrassed of me or something?” Shin had small tears forming in his eyes. </p><p>Leo was horrified. He didn’t want Shin to think that he was embarrassed about him, because he wasn’t. He was a little embarrassed that Shin was so tall in those boot and Leo was till tiny, but that was it. “ No, no, no, no, no, no. No, I could never be embarrassed of you. I am just, uhh, … Jason doesn’t know that I am into him, which means that I am constantly at risk of telling him. I have never been good at keeping secrets.” </p><p>Shin visibly relaxed and he just simply leaned back against the school wall. Honestly, just sitting against the school wall watching one of Shin’s favourite anime was the most perfect thing that Leo had done for the past two weeks. All he had to do was watch something that his ‘brother’ was loved and just enjoy being alone for a while. </p><p>“ Oh, okay, well, I got something out of you about the ‘used-to-be-mystery-boy’,” Shin grinned like an idiot. An idiot who thought that he had won something. But he hadn’t, Leo swore, Shin had won nothing. Nothing at all. “ Anyway, why haven’t you told Jason you are into him? Is he dating someone?” </p><p>Leo honestly didn’t know how to answer because honestly, he hadn’t checked in with Jason recently enough to know whether or not Jason and Piper had gotten together or not. “ I am not sure, but I am almost one-hundred percent sure that he likes girls. Only girls.” </p><p>“ Oh, well, you should tell him anyway. It could make your friendship weird if you do something weird,” Shin suggested. </p><p>‘You know, for a kid my age, Shin gives some good advice,’ Leo thought to himself. </p><p>Then the second part hit him fast and hard. Weird, what weird thing could he do involving Jason? Oh, ohhhhhh… that’s what. The thing involving the thing and thoughts about Jason and the touching and that everything. And then another realization hit Leo, he had never felt anything sexual about anyone, and had never even thought about masturbation outside of Sex Ed class in school. Jason, was, however, incredibly sexy in Leo’s mind. It might just be because Leo knows exactly what Jason’s body looks like in the most minimal clothing possible. Oh god, that sounded wrong didn’t it. Jason just like to sleep in his underwear, and only his underwear at night in the summer, and Leo wasn’t the best at sleeping when it got too hot. Nothing more than that. </p><p>But oh, Jason’s body had really started to flourish recently. When they met, Jason had been lean, with some muscle but not much. Now he was just straight up buff. His body looked like it was made of chiseled stone, and had been painted by Michelangelo himself. He was art, electrifyingly beautiful, make the hair on the back stand up static electricity, kind of beautiful. </p><p>Leo just wanted to watch Jason squirm beneath him. He wanted to make finger bruises beside that sharp v-line as he sucked the most purple hickeys onto his neck and chest in an L and a V. He wanted Jason strong arms grasping at the sheets and his hair and shoulders as Leo drove him over the edge. </p><p>He wanted that raspy voice saying his name over and over, louder and louder, until he couldn’t anymore. </p><p>***</p><p>“ Leo, why are you spending so much time in the bathroom recently? Are you trying something new with your hair again? Because last time you were ‘trying something new’ with your hair, it was super strange looking,” Cam insulted. Leo knew that Cam was just asking, but somehow, Cam always managed to not filter himself. </p><p>Sev, Shin and Jess began to snicker a ton, and Leo just shank down in his chair, almost blowing up because of the pressure the blushing was creating. God he wanted to sink through the floor and die.</p>
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<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Some Space</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Sorry that it took me so much time to update, I just had a little plot rearranging to do. I will do better next time I promise.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“ Hey, Leo, slow down!” Jason called from down the hallway. Leo simply started to speed up to get away. He had been avoiding Jason for this long and he wasn’t going to stop now. Not even because Jason asked. “ Leo! I need to talk to you! Leo stop!” </p><p>A small, “ Jason, what’s wrong?” came from Frank Zhang, who was on Jason’s football team. And a, “ Jason! Shut the fuck up! It’s eight a.m. bro!” could be heard from Percy Jackson, also on the football team. Honestly, Leo liked Percy and Frank, but Percy was not a morning person, and that was a well known fact to pretty much everyone. He chuckled to himself a little at Jason getting told off, for once. </p><p>Even though Jason’s friends were being funny, Leo still didn’t want to see Jason, maybe ever again. He wasn’t sure yet, but he has so much time now that he was avoiding Jason, could figure it out. </p><p>Leo had always been a good runner, because goddamn, he had practice doing it. Unfortunately, Jason had always been better, and he caught up to Leo in no time. </p><p>Jason grabbed the smaller boy up against the shoulders and flipped him around before slamming him into the wall of the boys locker room. Leo was so thankful that it was Friday and there was no gym class on Fridays. </p><p>“ Leo, tell me what the heck is wrong with you?! You have been avoiding me for weeks now and I want to know why?! What have I done to make you mad?!” Jason growled in Leo’s face. </p><p>Leo couldn’t even move, he couldn’t avoid this situation and on top of that, he was being yelled at viciously. Yelling this way was a bit of a trauma trigger for Leo. Leo had been through foster home after foster home and more possible adoption families than he could even remember. The on es he couldn’t remember were simply the plain ones, the ones he did remember, more often than not, left painful mark on his mind. </p><p>Trauma triggers were bad for Leo, simply because they were the one thing he couldn’t laugh away. When he was placed right in front of the things that scared him the most, he just froze and began to break down. </p><p>“ I can’t tell you Jason,” Leo said in between small sniffles. Then his mind broke and the shit hit the fan, “ I like you, Jason. The same way you and Piper like each other. The difference is that, I can’t like you, because you have someone else. I am so sorry. I didn’t want to tell you, I just can’t take it anymore.” </p><p>Leo knew he would regret this later, but he couldn’t keep his guards up when the man he liked was the cause of his tiny sized relapsed. He was just overwhelmed and he didn’t want to deal with this amount of emotion in one day. So just went home. Never even showed up to first period. </p><p>***</p><p>“ Piper, I am very confused. Did you actually throw the bottle out a window?” Annabeth asked through barely contained laugher. </p><p>“ Yes, I messed up with my project and I got really upset, so I just kind of threw the bottle out the window, which I thought was open at the time and it just shattered. On another note, that was the day I learned how to run,” Piper was also cracking up with the other girl. She and Annabeth had become a lot closer than she ever would have thought since Leo had been ignoring her and Jason. Annabeth was super kind and sweet, and she was also a fierce ass bitch who was exactly the kind of woman Piper always wished that she had in her life growing up. </p><p>The Leo ruined it, “ PIPER! YOU ARE GOING TO HATE ME BECAUSE I DID SOMETHING AWFUL AND I NEED HEP!” The small boy screamed as he barged into the music room. He looked out of breath, and he felt that way as well. He had full on sprinted around the entire school looking for Piper until he came across Percy who told him where she was. </p><p>Annabeth went into full on defense mode and Piper fell off her chair. “ Leo, what’s wrong?! What could you have possibly done that I would hate you for?!” Piper screamed as a knee jerk reaction. </p><p>Leo froze up, but Annabeth and Piper were already looking at him with curiosity, confusion and a bit of chagrin. Leo was terrified for himself, Annabeth was the school’s biggest badass and everyone knew it. Once, she punched Clarisse La Rue in the face and knocked her out. It was comedic gold and Leo had taken a video of it. </p><p>He was now holding that video hostage, so that anytime Clarisse said anything about him, he could simply take out that video and show her, and shut her up immediately. It was amazing. </p><p>“ Leo, hey, Leo, are you listening. Houston are there? Leo, you had something important to tell us. It was going to make Piper hate you. Remember?” Annabeth waved her hand in front of Leo’s face, trying to get his attention. </p><p>“ Oh yeah, right,” Leo scrambled to find his words and thoughts. “ Piper, Jason is into you and you guys should go out together on a date. Okay, bye.” </p><p>Leo had never run so much on one day in his entire life.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. Two Birds, no Stones</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I just want to say right now that I am sorry that I look so long to update, but I am didn't update until now on principale. I know that books aren't just books, they are an experience and are treasured by so many people.</p><p>If you are going to take time out of your day to read my story, I have a duty to give you my best work all the time, no matter what. This chapter wasn't ready, I re-read it maybe fifty times before settling on this version, and it was off every single time. </p><p>I approach my entire life this way, so chapters may take me a little bit longer as I approach the end of my schoolyear and focs more on my assignments, but I refuse to give worse content because of the end of the year. It may take a couple more days, but please be patient with me, that's all I ask.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Leo had many regrets in this life. He regrets never telling his mom he loved her enough. He regrets not helping the kids he knew were in trouble in his old foster homes. He feels regret about his past actions more than he feels good about them. </p><p>However, telling Piper that Jason was into him, was something Leo would regret for the rest of his life. He had told Jason he liked him, kind of, and then, he just ran and told to the person who would makes that he and Jason had no chance at all. That was, even if they had a modicum of a chance without Piper in the equation. </p><p>Jason had clearly noticed as well, because him and Piper were no longer walking on eggshells around each other, and Jason and Leo were no longer walking near each other. He wasn’t sure whether Jason had just given up on Leo, or he was actually mad at him. It didn’t matter which it was, because it was taking a huge emotional toll on him. And that emotional toll was taking a huge physical toll on Leo. </p><p>He was barely sleeping, even less that he does in the middle of developing a new device, which he hadn’t been able to do without messing up since he started even considering that he might be into Jason. It was like the emotions that he was feeling had completely shut down the mechanic part of his brain and made it impossible for him to come up with a way to turn something, or things, he already had into something new.</p><p>He had even tried to take apart his phone and put it back together, a task he could normally do in around fifteen minutes, and he couldn’t figure out how to put some parts back in place, and ended up having to Google how to do it. It killed a little part of him having to do that, and he was sure his mother rolled over in her grave as he did as well, because lord knows she expected better of him when she was alive. </p><p>Unbeknownst to his new friend, Leo was thanking all the gods in the universe for Shin’s existence because he was fantastic company. Leo was never pressured to interact, and if he didn’t answer because he didn’t want to, Shin would just keep talking without Leo answering until he felt comfortable again. </p><p>He always made sure that Leo had something in his hands to fiddle with so that he was never uncomfortable and he was always able to concentrate. </p><p>But he wasn’t Jason, and as much as Leo hated to say that she was this close to him, he wasn’t Piper. Shin didn’t hug as tightly as Jason. He didn’t smile as goofily and Piper. He couldn’t speak Spanish with a terrible accent like Jason did. He couldn’t didn’t get Leo’s references the way that Piper did. </p><p>Shin was a good enough friend to keep him sane, and safe, but he wasn’t a good enough friend to make him not miss Piper. </p><p>And if Leo was being honest, Shin might never be enough. </p><p>“ Leo, there is a girl here to see you. She has weird choppy hair with a feather in it, I told her to come in. The Madame’s aren’t home,” Shin said. </p><p>Right now, Leo was sure that Shin was nowhere close to being a good friend right now, but someone he considered an excellent friend was waiting. Piper was at his house. The bigger thing was, how the hell did she know where he lived. </p><p>He dragged himself out of bed and downstairs, fully aware that he was wearing a shirt that definitely wasn’t his and some gray sweatpants that might not have been his, but there was no guarantee. Piper, on the other hand, was sitting in the living room in a pair of jeans with no rips and no drawings on it, and fancier design on her t-shirt. But of course, her ski jacket was just as ever-present as always. </p><p>Leo once asked her if she slept in her jacket, and he never actually got an answer, so he assumed it was a yes. Leo wasn’t surprised at all. She seemed to really love that thing, Leo just wanted to know why. </p><p>“ Piper, Shin told me that you wanted to talk with me,” Leo said sitting down on a chair in the living room he would have been locked away for sitting in if the Madame’s were there. It was just so damn comfortable though. </p><p>“ Yeah, I wanted to talk to you about you and Jason. There is clearly something going on and I am missing you being around with us.” Bless Piper’s soul, she was so sweet, but Leo wanted to both laugh and scream. He had done his best to put his happiness and relationships last and to make sure that no matter how much it hurt, his crush and best friend were happy. And Piper was worried. </p><p>“ Look, I had to push Jason away because I knew that, hell the whole world knew that, you and Jason were interested to each other and I just want you and Jason to be happy. No matter the cost. I am sorry, I didn’t think you would really even notice that I was gone,” Leo sniffled a little, holding back the Niagara’s Falls of tears by pure will. </p><p>Piper’s face went from the gentle concern to stoic displeasure, “ Leo,” her voice was firm- like a parent scolding a child. “ Are you in love with Jason? Are you in love with my boyfriend.” </p><p>Leo couldn’t hold back anymore, and let his tears loose, “ Yes, I am. I have been for a while. I’m sorry.” </p><p>Piper just sat up even straighter, wiping her eyes, “ Well, we’re going to have to do something. I am not letting you go."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0014"><h2>14. Dates, but not for you</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>There is some Jason P.O.V. in it for the first time, so that's cool.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“ Leo, you need to talk all of this over with Jason at some point,” Piper urged to Latin male. </p><p>Ever since Leo kind of came out to Piper and confessed that he had a crush on Jason- yes, that’s what they were actually calling it now- she had been surprisingly kind and understanding with him. It was nothing like the movies where the protagonist's friend freaks out because she likes “her man”. No, Piper just tried to develop a plan to get them together. </p><p>“ I don’t think I do. Look, I know that you have convinced yourself that Jason likes me, but he doesn’t. For one, he’s straight, and dating you. Even if was a little bi, I am the least attractive male on the planet. Even when I was straight, I didn’t get any girls because everyone with eyes can recognize that I am unattractive. It’s just not going to happen. When I recognized that I was queer, I came to terms with the fact that I will never have a cute story romance, because that doesn’t happen in the queer community. Not to me at least.”</p><p>Leo could tell that what he was saying was sad, but it was true. Watching Piper and Jason get together and be happy, looking at each other like they were the only thing that mattered, made him realize that he would never have that. Queer people didn’t get those kinds of things, they got to slowly fall in love after lots of emotional trauma from past lovers and then enjoy the last decades of their life trying to deal with stigma from their family and communities. That’s romance for queer people, and you aren’t allowed to complain because you’re lucky just to have rights. </p><p>A sharp pain on his right arm snapped him out of his trance, “ Leo, shut up. Just because you can’t see how much you mean to Jason, doesn’t mean that the rest of us can’t. He talks about you all the time, wondering what you told him means and what he did wrong to make you ignore him. It is like I have a boyfriend that doesn’t know I exist. He talks about you all the time. If Jason doesn’t know now how he feels about you, we are just going to have to show him.” </p><p>***</p><p>Jason was losing his mind without Leo. He had no idea that the smaller boy was so important to him until he lost him. </p><p>I mean, Jason and Leo were from totally different worlds. Their lives were so incredibly different that for the first month of their friendship, Leo thought the whole thing was a prank. Their families were so unbelievably different that when Leo met his family and saw the way that they functioned he couldn’t believe it; Leo literally asked if they were faking it because he was around. They were physically super different, Jason was tall and muscular, he was also quite pale with blond hair and blue eyes. Leo was small and slight, almost elfish, and he had smoothe caramel skin, wild and curly hair and warm brown eyes. </p><p>Hell, they were even wired oppositely. Leo was fidgety and almost anxious all the time. He was constantly doing something, and if someone asked him not to, he would go crazy and just explode at some point. Jason was calm and consistent. He was steady and he didn’t freak out easily. He thought everything through and managed to make decisions in the heat of the moment if necessary. Leo was an impulsive spur of the moment decision maker. </p><p>Jason just felt so alone all the time. If he saw something funny, he would send it to Leo. If he needed someone to talk to, he would talk to Leo. If he- </p><p>“ Jason, you can’t sit on the sidelines of life forever. This is getting ridiculous,” Thalia interrupted Jason’s thoughts. “ Diana and I are going out for ice cream and then a walk in a park with her dog, and I told her how you were feeling and she agrees with me, you need to leave the house.” <br/>When he wanted to escape the annoyingness of his sister, he met up with Leo.  </p><p>“ Fine,” he groaned, “ But only if you pay for extra toppings.” </p><p>“ Alright loser, get ready. We leave in ten.” </p><p>***</p><p>Diana seemed nice enough, but she also seemed like Thalia in a strange way. They had the same sense of humour and they meshed so well together, and it didn’t help Jason at all. Because he had a Diana, and his Diana’s name was Leo. And Leo was gone. </p><p>All and all though, he was happy for Thalia, because Diana was also really beautiful. She had the most unlikely hair and eye colour combination of red hair and yellow eyes. She was strong, borderline buff and her features were angular and prominent. She wasn’t exactly Jason’s type, but he was sure that he wasn’t hers either. </p><p>“ So, Jason, tell me about yourself? I mean Thalia said you, ‘Needed to interact with people before you died’,” Diana asked him. Jason totally believed that Thalia had said that, and sent her a death glare for it. </p><p>“ Well, Thalia may have overestimated how much I needed to get out, but whatever,” he turned back to Diana and smiled. “ Anyway, there’s not much to tell about me. I mean other than that I beat Thalia at all the tournaments we held as a kid.” </p><p>Thalia stuck her tongue out at Jason and retaliation, and Diana laughed before wrapping her arm around Thalia. “ I prefer you anyway, Babe. But I might want to witness one of these tournaments. Maybe you can bring your boyfriend Jason.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0015"><h2>15. Ice cream and Voicemails</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>There was ice cream and orange soda everywhere. Truly everywhere. It was on Apollo, Diana’s dog, and he went from white with brown spots to orange with brown and pink spots. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“ Oh my god, Jason what are you doing?! How spasmastic are you?! What the hell man?!” Thalia yelled at her brother and hit his arm multiple times. “ There’s stuff all over Apollo and everyone’s shoes. What the hell?” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Diana leant down and seem to have a small conversation with Apollo, but looked up and smiled at them, “ Don’t worry about it. Apollo needed a bath soon anyway and now I have a big reason to do it.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“ Still, I’m sorry. You just kind of caught me off guard,” Jason apologized and scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“ Sorry, I didn’t know that you were still in the closet. Although I don’t think that Thalia and I are really in a place to judge you about something like that. Especially, Thalia, she’s a total disaster lesbian, it’s like half our personality,” Diana joked. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Normally, Jason would make a sarcastic quip like, “ Really?! I never noticed!” but right now, he was completely focused on the fact that Diana most definitely thought that he was gay, or some other kind of queer person. He wasn’t really sure how to tell her how to tell her that he had a girlfriend and not a boyfriend. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“ Uhm, actually, I am not really sure how to take this, but I am not gay and I don’t have a boyfriend. I have a girlfriend named Piper, not a boyfriend. I’m not sure what Thalia told you, but she lied.”<br/></span>
</p><p>
  <span>Diana simply burst out laughing, super hard. Hard enough that she soon began to wheeze and hold her side. This went on for long enough that Apollo began to paw at Diana’s leg in concern. </span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“ Wait, Diana, are you okay? What’s wrong?” Thalia then turned to Jason and smacked him hard in the chest. “ What did you do? Is this a joke I don’t understand.” </span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>This got Diana to speak up, “ No, no, no, it’s not that. It’s just that I thought you were serious when you asked, ‘ Can Jason come with us today? He’s having trouble with his boyfriend Leo and he’s moping.’ And Jason, your face when you tried to explain that you aren’t gay. You looked so awkward. Ooh, I am so sure that’s exactly the expression I had when I came out as a massive lesbian to my parents and friends.” </span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“ Oh, okay good, I thought I had broken you as something,” Jason chuckled. </span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>Diana then completely schooled her features and placed a hand on Jason’s shoulder, “ Jason, I just want you to know that your sister and I totally support you being straight. Some people might not, but you are going to have to deal with that because you can’t change the world around you.” </span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>This sent all of them into a fit of laughter. </span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>God, it actually was nice to talk to other people again. Especially Diana, she was super cool. </span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>***</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“ Leo, are you sure that you want to give up on trying to get Jason?” Piper asked from her bed. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Piper had invited Leo to sleepover that weekend, but what he didn’t realize was that a sleepover was just Piper’s cover for trying to have a three day, two night planning session with Leo. It was Friday night, they were barely into this sleepover, and Leo had already gotten tired of Piper trying to force Jason and him together. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“ Yes, Piper, I am telling you right now that Jason and I will never be together,” Leo sighed and leaned back on the oversized bean bag in the corner of Piper’s room. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“ Okay, but can you do one thing for me?” Leo nodded, “ Can you tell me what you like about Jason?” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“ Fine, I just, it’s really difficult for me to explain but I just like him. I used to get bullied by other kids, but Jason makes me feel safe. He laughs at all my jokes, even my terrible ones. He hugs me when I need it. He’s such a different personality from mine, but I just feel like I can be myself around him the way I can’t with anyone else. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“ I want to find a permanent place in his arms, looking up into those perfect electric blue eyes and basking in that perfect sunny smile. I want to be able to wrap my arm around his torso and say ‘This is my boyfriend.’ I want to have it be sweet and not creepy or weird that I know exactly what he smells like. I want to be able to cheer for him at his football games and not have people tell me ‘You know, you’re a really good best friend.’ I would take all the homophobia in the world if it meant I could find out what those lips felt like,” Leo finally snapped himself out of his dream-like state when the most horrifying sound rang out. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“ If you are happy with your message, press one. To redo your message, press two,”</span>
  </em>
  <span> Piper had fucking recorded him. </span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0016"><h2>16. Message Recieved</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Jason couldn’t stop replaying the message from Piper. He had expected something silly from her like, “ Drink eight glasses of water everyday,” or “ If you don’t practice, you’ll lose the skill.” Something silly and mildly helpful that makes you laugh and reminds you something you didn’t know you forgot. </p><p>But no, the message was a difficult to hear recording of what was unmistakably to Jason, Leo talking. It almost sounded like Leo didn’t know he was being recorded at that time. </p><p>Otherwise, why would he say the things he said. He went on for around a minute and a half about… for lack of a better term, Jason. But it was different than all the other times that Leo talked about Jason. </p><p>Normally, Leo said things like, “ And he super trustworthy,” and “ He’s great at football,” and, “ He’s super strong, he always helps me carry my inventions around when I can’t.” </p><p>The message Piper sent him was about how Leo wanted to be Jason’s boyfriend. His boyfriend! That was something Jason had never, and never expected, to hear from Leo. He thought Leo was straight. He was always going on about this girl from the university named Hazel or something that was pretty. He was always complaining that she had a secret boyfriend that was in our high school, so she was taken and he had no chance. </p><p>Oh, that made sense. He thought her boyfriend was hot, and was sad he didn’t know who it was. Maybe Hazel wasn’t even a girl, it was just a cover.<br/>
Jason tugged on his hair to bring him back to reality, he was over-thinking this way too much and just needed to talk to Leo and clear this whole thing up. </p><p>He slipped his shoes and a shirt quickly, he knew exactly where he was going to find Leo, and he was pretty sure he knew what he needed to ask Leo. I mean, it was probably a joke right. Right? </p><p>***</p><p>Leo wasn’t sure what he was looking at, but he was sure he liked it. Jason was standing in Piper’s doorway, panting heavily with red cheeks and all. He looked disheveled and his shirt was hanging off his left shoulder low enough that the balance created a nice viewing of Jason’s abs for Leo’s pleasure on his right side. </p><p>“ H-hey, Jason, wh-what are you d-d-doing h-h-h-here?” Leo tried to play it off like he didn’t know why Jason was here, and he was very aware that he was failing. </p><p>Jason leaned even farther down into the doorway, still catching his breath. He must have actually run the whole way here from the closest bus stop, which was at least five kilometers away. </p><p>“ I got Piper’s message, and I need to talk to you,” he finally mumbled out. He was being careful with his tone, volume and words, a little too careful for Leo’s liking. Leo knew what this was, this was Jason tiptoeing around the hard stuff because he thought that Leo would break. He was treating Leo like glass because he thought that he wouldn't be able to take the pressure. </p><p>Leo just smiled. He wasn’t glass, he was coal, and pressure turned him into a fucking diamond. “ Listen Jason, I don’t know what you are thinking, but you weren’t to hear about the way I think about you. I distanced myself from you over the past couple of weeks because I know you will never and could never feel the same way. I like a boy, you, and you, you like a girl, Piper. Even though Piper has this crazy idea that, ‘if you get a chance to date me, you will immediately fall in love with me,’ I stopped dreaming about things like that a long time ago. </p><p>“ I have accepted that I won’t get a storybook romance like the one you and Piper have, but I am not going to put myself through more pain by trying to be your friend and trying to forget how I feel about you. Just let me salvage my dignity and self-respect. I am not doing that to myself.” Leo felt the tears welling up in his eyes, but they never had time to fall. </p><p>Jason reached out and cupped his face, wiping the few stray tears away. “ I think I can fix everything,” the blonde boy said. Jason quickly rushed past Leo and upstairs towards Pipers room. </p><p>He stayed behind and closed the door, before an ear-splitting scream rang out throughout the entire house. It was unmistakably Piper’s, Leo knew that Jason in all forms could never make a sound like that. </p><p>Before Leo could run any form of scenario through his head, Piper was running downstairs and tackling Leo to the ground. Leo knew he was in for it when he saw the shit-eating grin on Piper’s face and Jason smiling at the top of the stairs. </p><p>“ Piper look, I don’t want to hear whatever wonderful thing that Jason told you about how much he li-” </p><p>“ Jason and I broke up! We aren’t dating anymore!” </p><p>Then there was a shout from the top of the stairs, “ Hey, Leo, you wanna go on a date sometime?”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0017"><h2>17. The Day Has Finally Arrived</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I'm sorry for the long time in between updates, I've been working through some stuff and haven't had the energy to do anything, much less write anything worth writing. </p><p>I am really sorry, and I hope you can forgive me.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Leo was, well… gobsmacked for lack of a better turn of phrase. There was no logical explanation the situation he was in, and that was pretty much frying his brain. </p><p>Jason had straight up asked him out. With that stupid cheeky grin plastered across his face and strange sparkles in his eyes. Leo mentally facepalmed himself for even noticing Jason’s eyes. This whole thing was clearly a joke, and yet, he had felt his heart skip a beat and heard a part of his brain say, ‘yes’ milliseconds after he was asked. He was stupid to fall for this. </p><p>Piper and Jason remained in the same positions as before, with expectant looks on their faces. They wanted an answer, and Leo wasn’t going to give them the satisfaction of watching him fall for it. </p><p>“ Sorry,” he said coldly. “ But I am not falling for this. I am not letting myself get hurt so that you guys can laugh at me.” </p><p>Piper looked confused, genuinely confused, Leo knew that her acting skills were nothing like her fathers and that he couldn’t always count on her for authenticity. Jason though, he looked heartbroken, shattered, pained, there was no real word or phrase to describe the look on Jason’s face. It was mix of fear, pain, anger and sadness. Lots and lots of sadness. </p><p>“ Why would you, how could you, why would I do something like that?” He stumbled over his words and his voice was shaky. </p><p>Jason began to walk down the stairs, and Piper stood up before helping Leo to his feet as well. Leo’s knees went even weaker than they already had been. Jason’s stare was both hypnotic and terrifying. Leo might wet himself if he looked into Jason’s eyes any longer, but he couldn’t bring himself to break the stare. God, Leo could get lost in the electrical blue lightning storm that were Jason’s eyes. </p><p>“ L-l-leo, I would never hurt you. I don’t know whether or not I like boys or not, but I know that I can’t live without you being in my life. I need you like I need air, and I would do anything to not lose you,” Jason’s voice was not the normal confident voice that he always had. It was broken and desperate. </p><p>It sounded too good to be true, Jason was a star, and Leo was the darkness that was left over. They were together all the time, but people were always around for Jason, and Leo was an additive you had to deal with. The idea that Jason, who was an embodiment of the sun himself could want him in any way was insane. </p><p>Leo just started crying. Tears were streaming down his face and he could already feel the snot readying itself to drip down his face. Leo had never been a pretty crier, he always shook violently and sobbed loudly. His entire face turned red and he look like a gremlin for a significant amount of time after it. </p><p>Despite all of his normal crying habits kicking in, he froze up when he felt Jason’s strong arms wrap around him, pulling Leo right into his chest. </p><p>“ Shh, it’s okay Leo. I shouldn’t have overwhelmed you with all of this so soon. If you aren’t okay with going out with me, that’s fine. I will leave you alone and you don’t have to talk to me ever again. I need you in my life Leo, but if you don’t want to be around me any more, that’s fine. Everything is your choice, and I will respect those choices.” </p><p>Leo looked up and shyly met Jason’s eyes, “ I th-th-th-think I w-w-w-want t-t-t-to g-g-g-go out w-w-w-with y-y-y-you.”</p><p>***</p><p>Leo was the most nervous he had ever been in his entire life. Never. </p><p>Well, that may not be true. Leo has been through a lot in his life, and he has been nervous throughout most of it.</p><p>This though, this was a different kind of nervous though. This was a nervousness that he welcomed. It made him feel warm and complete. </p><p>Most of the time, the kind of nervousness he felt was like a swelling inside of his chest. It was a throbbing feeling that grew and grew and grew and continued to grow until he cracked under the pressure. It was like a sharp pang, leaving him with the feeling of being cold and empty until it faded away and he was left feeling nothing for a while. </p><p>This wasn’t a cold throb, it was a warm fluttering that made him feel like he was filling up with warmth and comfort. It was the feeling of drinking hot chocolate on a winter’s day. It felt like the internal version of wrapping a million blankets around yourself and putting on your favourite movie. </p><p>It was pure heat and warmth. And it felt amazing. </p><p>“ Leo, Blondie’s at the door for you,” Jen yelled up the stairs. Moments when the Madame’s were away were nice, because it almost felt like they were a real family. </p><p>“ I’m coming,” Leo called, adjusting his shirt on last time. </p><p>Shin smiled at him from his own bed, “ Hey, Leo. Good luck on your date with Jason. I’m proud of you.”</p>
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<a name="section0018"><h2>18. This Just Might Work</h2></a>
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    <p>Jason was freaking out. He has been on enough dates to know what to do. Or at least, he thought he did. It didn’t matter though, because he wasn’t just going on a date, he was going on a date with Leo, his amazing, funny, smart, adorable best friend. He was on a da- wait, did he say adorable? </p><p>‘ Yeah, you definitely said adorable. Maybe Piper was right, maybe we will start to like Leo,’ the voice in the back of Jason’s head reminded him. </p><p>‘ That’s the whole point of this going out with Leo. To fall for him,’ Jason reminded himself. ‘ Besides, Leo is arguably the best thing to ever happen to me, I am not letting him get away just because he thinks I can’t fall for him. I’d do anything for him.’</p><p>Another voice chimed in, but this one wasn’t inside Jason’s head, it was Leo. “ Hey, Jason, you seem out of it. Dammit Leo, you knew this was a bad idea and you still agreed to it,” Leo began to ramble on and mumble quickly, Jason began to lose track of what he was saying.</p><p>“ Hey, Leo, this is my fault. I shouldn’t have zoned. Especially because you look so adorable right in front of me,” Jason smiled and did his best to sound less creepy than he knew the words were. </p><p>Jason guessed that it worked when Leo began to blush furiously, “ Don’t’ say things you don’t mean.” </p><p>Jason smiled at Leo and laughed slightly, “ I do mean it. Whoever helped you with your outfit this time did a great job. Who was it?” </p><p>Leo’s blush went down and he seemed to calm down, well, as much as Leo could ever calm down. “ I tell Shin and Jen you think so. They both helped me tons. I’m wearing mostly Shin’s clothes because apparently, “ My petite frame looks better in clothes too big for me.” Whatever that means. Jen just yelled at me and did my makeup. I told her not to, but I don’t know if you know anything about Jen, she won’t take no for an answer.” </p><p>Now that Leo had said it, Jason noticed the small amounts of sparkles and extra colour on his face. As far as natural makeup went, this had to be the most natural it could get, but it was definitely still there. “ Well, I think they did a great job. You look way better than I do.” </p><p>Leo smacked Jason on the arm, “ Dude, you’re lying. I look like a girl, but I guess that’s the entire point of what Shin did. You don’t like boys, but just because I’m not a girl, doesn’t mean I shouldn’t look like one. I suppose they wanted to give me all the advantages they could.” </p><p>Jason felt his heart break all over again, “ I like the way you look right now, but that’s not why I like you. I like your style all the time, and I like to be around you all the time because you’re you, not because you feminine for a guy. Do what you want, and unless it’s terrible, I’ll support you.</p><p>“ Although, the clothes you’re wearing might not be the best considering what we are going to do,” Jason smiled. </p><p>“ Oh yeah, and what’s that?” Leo smiled. </p><p>‘ Just you wait,’ Jason’s inner voice laughed maniacally while his normal one just sweetly said, “ You’ll see.” </p><p>***</p><p>Leo had expected a lot of things from this date, but robots were not one of them. “ This is what you meant when you said these clothes might not work for this.” </p><p>They were standing in the robotics club at the school, with more parts than Leo could ever imagine on the the table in front of him. </p><p>“ This, my dashing gentleman caller,” Jason said in a put on voice, “ Is your very own robotics session. We’re gonna build robots. Well, you’re going to build robots, I’m going to try my best.” </p><p>Leo couldn’t help but start tearing up and the gesture. He hadn’t imagined that Jason would put this much thought into their first date, but it was perfect. No, it was magical. </p><p>He couldn’t help but run up to Jason and envelop him in a massive hug, “ Thank you so much, Jay! I couldn’t even have imagined something like this!” </p><p>Jason slowly wrapped his arms around Leo, pulling them even closer together. “ You deserve it Leo. You’re the one who had a crush on me first, I might as well make this the best first date ever.” </p><p>Leo pulled away from the hug and pushed Jason, “ You idiot. Anyway, let’s get to making some robots. The faster I finish my first one, the quicker I can help you with yours. It’s nice to be the one who knows what they’re talking about for once. Now, grab that screwdriver, those screws and that finished robot, I’m gonna fix it for them.”</p>
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<a name="section0019"><h2>19. Cotton Candy and Caramel</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Jason’s family had gotten used to the idea that Leo and Jason were going out very quickly. Like, more quickly than he thought they would. </p><p>Part of him was glad, because it would make it so much easier for Jason to show Leo how much the small boy meant to him. It meant that he didn’t have to worry about whether or not his family would be weird about Jason dating a boy, because to them he wasn’t, he was just dating Leo. </p><p>Another part of him was upset, because now that Jason and Leo were dating, there were rules about what they were allowed to do when Leo stayed over. Now, they weren’t allowed to have the door closed, which meant that they had to play their video games quieter than normal because the noise was bugging everyone else. </p><p>Leo also now had to sleep on the couch, or in Thalia’s room because Jason’s mom didn’t trust them alone together. As if Jason would do anything to Leo at this stage in their relationship. Leo was too emotionally fragile for that, and Jason wouldn’t do anything that even had a fraction of a chance of hurting Leo. </p><p>Right now, it was eleven p.m. and Jason and Leo were snuggled up on the floor in Jason’s room, watching Thor: Ragnarok. Jason had bought the D.V.D. a while back, even though he had seen it in theatres and Leo had practically begged him to watch it. </p><p>Apparently, Leo had a thing for Tom Hiddleston as Loki, and apparently, Jason was also the jealous type. Even though it was hard to be jealous when he say the look of utter marvel on Leo’s face as he watched the movie with an almost religious intent. </p><p>It was the purest form of wonder that filled Leo’s eyes, as he watched the fight scenes. </p><p>Jason wasn’t watching the movie, that was clear at this point. No, he was watching Leo watch the movie. He was watching Leo gasp every time someone tried to hurt Loki, which was often. He was smiling every time that someone said something funny. He was feeling his body heat up every time that Leo moved against him when something came out of nowhere. He was memorizing the expressions of Leo’s face when any significant change in emotions was shown. He was swearing to himself that he would know exactly what every expression that that perfect face of Leo’s meant by the end of the night. </p><p> </p><p>Leo was asleep on Jason’s lap by the time the credits were rolling “ Go figure,” Jason muttered to himself, quiet enough to not wake Leo. “ Adorable nerd begs me to watch this movie, and can’t even stay awake for all of it. </p><p>Jason could’ve sworn his heart stopped when Leo rolled over on his side and burrowed himself further into Jason’s hold. Thankfully, Leo still remained knocked out completely, the only people awake in the entire house were him and Thalia. </p><p>‘ You know, I don’t think Leo’s hair has ever looked this fluffy before. It looks like chocolate caramel cotton candy,’ Jason thought to himself. </p><p>Suddenly, another voice chimed in, ‘ You should touch it. It looks so soft and amazing. Touch it, touch it touch it.’</p><p>And so Jason listened to the voice in his head, and plunged his fingers into Leo’s hair. He had been right, Leo’s hair was unbelievably soft that Jason was sure that there was no reasonable explanation for why it was that way. It felt both strange and amazing the way that Leo’s curls twirled their way around Jason’s. They didn’t knot, they simply curled and released so that Jason’s fingers wouldn’t get caught. </p><p>Slowly, Jason became bolder and began to slowly massaged Leo’s scalp. The small boy began keen in his sleep and make a sound that was almost like purring. </p><p>“ Jason?” Thalia called from the hallway before Jason shushed her. </p><p>Thalia smirked and walked into Jason’s room and sat in front of the two boys. When she saw them, she whispered, “ Oh, I didn't realize that he was sleeping.” </p><p>“ Yeah,” Jason whispered, his hands still lacing themselves through Leo’s curls. “ He looks so peaceful, I don’t want to wake him up and break his cute, peaceful expression.” </p><p>Thalia snorted, “ So, you’re really in love with this boy. Aren’t you?” </p><p>Jason panicked slightly, but he didn’t show it in case it would wake Leo. He hadn’t told his family, not even his sister, that he and Leo were dating because Jason was desperate to keep Leo by his side. Maybe he had always loved Leo, but right now, he was still trying figure out what exactly his feelings were. </p><p>“ Yeah, yeah,” Jason sighed. “ I think I really do love him.” </p><p>Thalia smiled and placed her hand on her brother’s leg. “ That’s good. Leo’s always been good for you and I always you two had a little something going on. Besides, he’s been pining after you since you two met. I’m happy that you have finally realized what a catch you’ve got. Anyway, goodnight little dude.”</p>
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<a name="section0020"><h2>20. Worlds Collide</h2></a>
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    <p>“ Leo, are you planning on hanging out with your old friends now that you and Jason are together?” Shin asked nervously as the two pulled their shoes on. </p><p>Leo wasn’t sure what he wasn’t supposed to tell Shin. He really wanted to keep on hanging out with Shin, but he missed Jason and their other friends. Maybe Shin would be willing to hang out with all of Leo’s friends, but Shin seemed like he was the introverted type and his friends were definitely not. He worried that they would scare him and Shin would freak out and get upset. </p><p>Leo grunted as he pulled on his shoes. “ Well, I don’t want to leave all alone. I love hanging out with you. Besides, I want to know what happens at the end of our show.” </p><p>Shin laughed as he closed the door behind them. “ Yeah, it’s just that Jason is your boyfriend, I don’t want to stop you two from being around each other. Besides, even I can tell you missed your friends a lot when you were avoiding Jason and all of them.” </p><p>“ Yeah, but you and I are like brothers now. I’d do anything for you man,” Leo chuckled and threw his arm around his friend. </p><p>Shin chuckled, “ Don’t say things like that in front of that boyfriend of yours. All these nice things coupled with my brilliant good looks, he might get jealous.” </p><p>***</p><p>“ Okay, Shin, I know you said you wanted to eat with me and my friends, but I am still giving you an out. These guys are all insane.” </p><p>“ No, I’m good, but seriously, how bad could they be?” Shin asked innocently. </p><p>“ Well, there’s Frank and Hazel, who are dating. Frank is built like a tank but he’s the sweetest guy you’ll ever meet. I bit clueless sometimes, but sweet. Hazel’s also a sweetie, but she’s not clueless and will read the hell out of you if you do something wrong. There’s also Percy, who’s a total goofball but he will kill for his girlfriend Annabeth and the rest of our friends. There’s Annabeth, she’s super smart and she’s pretty nice, but she has a tendency to make you feel stupid if you say something wrong or ask her about something. Piper is awesome in every way, no complaints. Hell, she fucking broke up with her boyfriend for me. Occasionally, there’s a freshman named Nico who hangs out with us. He’s super cool, but he seems kind of closed off. Like he’s trying to protect himself from us. I wish he’d hang out with us more,” Leo explained each of his friends. </p><p>“ So there’s seven of you, sometimes eight? That doesn’t seem like that much,” Shin said, sitting down at the table Leo had showed him to. Leo and Shin both had Math before lunch, which let out early, so they were the first ones there. </p><p>“ Yeah, it doesn’t seem like a lot, but trust me, once you meet them, you’ll realize what I mean.” </p><p>“ YO! LEO! YOU’RE FINALLY BACK MAN! WE MISSED YOU!” Leo turned to see Percy yelling from the entrance of the cafeteria with a disgruntled looking Nico tucked under his arm. </p><p>Leo turned to Shin and said, “ That’s Percy, and the annoyed looking kid under his arm is Nico. This is usually how Nico ends up eating with us. Percy just finds him after class and drags him here.” </p><p>Shin laughed. “ Is that kidnapping? Nico doesn’t seem to want t be here.” </p><p>“ It’s fine. Nico likes to pretend he’s an edge lord and doesn’t need anyone, but he doesn’t leave once Percy or somebody else drags him here, he never leaves.” </p><p>“ Hey Leo, is this your brother Shin?” Percy asked he sat down at the table, dragging Nico down with him. </p><p>Shin spoke up for himself, “ Yeah, and you’re Percy right?” Percy nodded and opened his mouth to speak, but Shin cut him off. “ And you’re Nico right?” </p><p>Nico looked up from his lap and nodded. “ What’s your last name? Leo didn’t tell me.” </p><p>“ Uhh, Di Angelo. My last name is Di Angelo,” Nico’s voice was cracky, like he had been quiet, and Nico seemed to be more shy than normal around Shin. </p><p>“ Cool, it’s Italian right,” Shin asked, trying to coax more out of the small boy. </p><p>“ Y-yeah,” Nico said. </p><p>Shin was going to keep talking to when Jason walked up and put his arms around Leo’s waist. “ Hey,” the blonde boy said. Leo just nestled into him and everyone else joined in and started talking around him. This is was the life for Leo, sitting around with his friends, having Jason hug him in front of everyone. He thought he might pass out from happiness.</p>
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<a name="section0021"><h2>21. The Dark Side of Love</h2></a>
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    <p>“ Leo, how did you know you were gay?” Leo’s jaw hit the floor. No, no, no, it went through the floor, and his jaw was currently chilling with Hades in the Underworld. </p><p>He had not expected to be asked this by Jason. By anyone really. But here he was, sitting under a tree in the park, his boyfriend reading beside him as he drew more designs for inventions, and Jason just decided to drop a bomb on him. </p><p>Like, how was Leo supposed to explain that he had had a crush on Jason, and then went to see a therapist that told him he was probably gay or bi or pan or something like that because he had an apparently obvious crush on his best friend. </p><p>“ Well, I have a friend named Luke, who I met at Piper’s party, and he told me about this psychologist, who specializes in helping queer youth. It’s a free service and I went to see them. If you want to see them as well, I can give you the address, hours and the psychologist I went to,” Leo explained. </p><p>“ Why did you want to go and see them?” Jason followed up, essentially setting Leo’s ears on fire. </p><p>“ Well, I talked to Luke and all of the other friends I met at Piper’s party about you, and they said that it sounded like I was in love with you. That kind of sparked me thinking about whether I was or not, and I wanted a second opinion. Sorry if that sounds kind of stalker-ish,” Leo scratched the back of his neck. </p><p>Jason smiled and laced his big hand with Leo’s dainty one. “ Hey, it’s not stalker-ish at all. You were just trying to figure stuff out. Besides, if you hadn’t done this, we wouldn’t be together. And I wouldn’t be able to hold your hand right now.”<br/>Leo giggled at Jason’s words. Somehow, all of Jason’s nice qualities and actions towards Leo became amplified when they started dating. Jason used to compliment him all the time, but they weren’t as strong the ones he used on Leo now. He used to call Leo kind, funny, smart; now, he called him beautiful, amazing, handsome, perfect. </p><p>Jason used to be nervous whenever he hugged Leo, as if someone would find someone would insult him. Now though, Jason seemed to want to be attached to Leo in some way at all times. Whether it was holding his hand, or hugging him, or resting his head on Leo’s shoulder, or even placing his hand on Leo’s thigh and resting it there or stroking Leo’s thigh gently. </p><p>Jason had always been a giving person toward Leo. Whenever he thought that Leo would need something, or saw that Leo had broken something, he would get it for him. But now, he just bought Leo anything. He was constantly showering Leo with gifts, whether he asked from them or not.  </p><p>“ You are so cheesy, Jay.” </p><p>Jason stood up and began to posture around in front of him, “ You like that I’m cheesy, Leo. Just admit it, and your life will become a million times better.” </p><p>Leo giggled, “ My life will be a million times better when you sit down and stop making a scene.” </p><p>Just as Leo pulled Jason down to sit again, an angry looking blonde woman and her son came up to them. “ Excuse me young men,” she said. </p><p>Leo looked up at her and gulped. She seemed way too upset for someone who didn’t know them at all. “ How can we help you?” Leo replied as sweetly as possible. </p><p>“ I would just like to say, that this,” she motioned to Jason and Leo, “ is not okay, and you should not be doing this in public. My son should not be subjected to this, he is a good christian boy and I am a good christian woman. We should not have to have a public show of your sin.” </p><p>Leo gulped, he wasn’t prepared for this. He knew in the back of his mind that if he dated a man, there would be people who would harass him, but after being around nothing but support, he hadn’t expected it. </p><p>“ As a good christian woman, you’ve read the bible? Correct,” Jason fired back. </p><p>“ Of course I have read the bible, and it clearly states that this is a sin,” the woman spat, clutching her son tighter. </p><p>“ Well, the bible says that all sins are equal. Did you know that you are wearing mixed fabrics? Which is a sin. I noticed that you don’t have a ring on your finger, which means that you either had your son before marriage which is a sin. Or, you have gotten a divorce. Also, a sin. Did you know that the bible says ‘love thy neighbor,’ and ‘ do not judge, or you too will be judge,’ two rules of the lord that you are breaking. Also, the passage from Leviticus 18:22. That passage that supposedly prohibits homosexuality, originality referred to pedophilia and not homosexuality. It was changed in 1946. Thank you, you can leave my boyfriend and I alone now.” </p><p>Leo could’ve sworn that he and the woman had the same expression of shock on their faces. Though he was sure it was for different reasons. As she walked away, Leo looked at Jason and in shock he said, “ You called me your boyfriend?!” </p><p>Jason just smiled at him, “ Yeah, because you are. You are my handsome boyfriend and everyone needs to know it.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>So I'm leaving for a trip tomorrow, so there won't be any updates for about a week or so. I'm really sorry guys.</p>
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<a name="section0022"><h2>22. Making Bets</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I'm back, so here's a chapter for you guys. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did while writing it.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“ Leo, are you and Jason coming to Piper’s party? She’s throwing one for the senior class,” Annabeth asked as they tried to study. Leo and Annabeth weren’t the closest in their group of friends, but he knew that she was the only person that made a decent study partner. </p><p>He would get distracted studying with Jason, Percy doesn’t have the attention span, Frank would ask too many questions, Hazel never needed to study anyway and Nico wasn’t in any of his classes. Annabeth though, she knew how to study and knew how study well. </p><p>She always photocopied her notes and gave them to Leo, and she always wrote those notes in a way that Leo’s weird way of understanding things could comprehending. She would sit and essentially give him an entire new lecture if he couldn’t understand the one the teacher gave that day. </p><p>There was always this section at some point during their study sessions when they essentially gossiped and talked about their lives with each others. Annabeth and Leo both liked to consider their childhoods equally as sad, and so they always kind of related to each other and helped each other with their residual trauma. </p><p>“ I don’t know, I can ask Jay, but I didn’t plan on going. I didn’t really have any plans though, so maybe going to Piper’s party won’t be such a big thing,” Leo answered, setting down his pencil. </p><p>“ Cool, Percy is attempting to drag Nico there, but I can already tell that he won’t want to be there,” Annabeth joked and Leo couldn’t help but laugh. Annabeth and Leo weren’t the closest, but Annabeth, Percy and Nico were almost definitely inseparable. Percy and Annabeth were dating, but sometimes Leo could swear that they both had a crush on Nico. There was no other explanation that made any sense. </p><p>“ Yeah, Nico’s not going to want to do that, but five bucks says that he’ll do it if you and Percy ask him enough,” Leo urged on. Leo wasn’t usually a betting man, but when he did, he never lost. </p><p>Annabeth set down her books, “ You know what, I will take that bet. Nico will agree to a lot for Percy, hell Percy can convince most people to do a lot of things, but Nico will never go to a party. Never in a million years.” </p><p>“ You are losing money, Chase, just you wait,” Leo smirked. </p><p>Annabeth leaned backwards and kicked her feet up on the desk. Her eyebrows slowing ascending towards the sky, Leo would have to lie if he said that Annabeth wasn’t an intimidating person, “ How sure are you, Valdez?” </p><p>“ Oh boy, you are on.” </p><p>***</p><p>Leo was regretting agreeing to go to this party. He was sure that the party was going to be great, but apparently his lovely new brother Shin, had been a party animal before he moved into their house. Of course, the only evidence Leo had of this was the egregious amount party clothes that were both too small and perfect size for the boy. </p><p>Right now, Shin was choosing his own outfit for Piper’s party, and Leo was staring at the clothes that Shin had picked up for him. He had chosen a tight fishnet shirt, and a black crop-top for Leo to wear over top of it. He also chose some low waisted black ripped jeans and some accessories. It was a bold choice, and Leo wasn’t sure about how he felt about the fact that Shin had told him that most of the clothes were girl’s clothes that his parents had given him in hopes of converting their son. </p><p>“ Leo, you need to change. We have to leave soon and I am too good of a person to allow you to pick your own clothes,” Shin said as he threw the last piece of his own outfit on. </p><p>Leo frowned and knitted his eyebrows together. “ I’m just not sure about the clothes you picked, they seem kind of revealing.” </p><p>“ Leo, that’s the point. You have a boyfriend, and you are handsome as I’ll get out. Besides, this is going to be a party, I highly doubt you will be the most scantily dressed person there.” </p><p>“ Are you sure?” Leo bit his lip nervously and played with the ends of the clothes. </p><p>“ I am absolutely the most sure I have ever been. Besides, if you are really that uncomfortable, I have a oversized sweater you can wear over top of it,” Shin went back over to his stuff and pulled out a black sweater with a zipper that went all the way down. </p><p>“ Alright fine,” Leo grumbled and slipped the clothes on. He did like it, but he had been right, in was an incredibly revealing outfit. It was also unbelievable for Leo to see how small his body actually was. He was lean and it Leo could’ve sworn that he saw some abs poking their way out, but other than that, the only muscle on his body was on his legs and arms, a little in his pecks, Leo was all limb muscle. </p><p>“ See, you look perfect. Jason’s going to love it,” Shin smiled.</p>
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<a name="section0023"><h2>23. The Beginning of Something Exiting</h2></a>
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    <p>“ So, is this better or worse than the last party you went to?” Piper asked cheekily as Leo came up to her, sipping something from her cup that smelled like a mixture of rubbing alcohol and smoke. </p><p>“ Yeah, so far it’s a lot better,” Leo chuckled and sipped his soda. Jason and all of his other friends had been sipping some kind of another of alcohol. </p><p>Piper smiled and hopped off the table to hug Leo. The way that she moved clearly showed that she had had at least a couple of drinks. Her movements were languid and when she leaned into Leo with too much force for her frame. She would’ve collapsed if Leo had not caught her. </p><p>“ I think that, you,” Piper motioned to the entirety of Leo’s torso with her forefinger, “ Look fabulous. Ten out of ten. Amazing.” </p><p>Leo blushed and smiled. “ You are exaggerating. I look like a trashy whore, at best. At worst, we aren’t going to talk about that.” </p><p>Before Piper could counter, which Leo could see her wanting to do. A voice interrupted them over the music. “ I don’t know if I get an opinion, but I think you look amazing. I mean, I think you look amazing all the time, but you look particularly amazing now. You did an amazing job.” </p><p>Leo turned to see Jason leaning against the kitchen doorway. He was wearing a sleeveless button up that had a bunch of colour splashes on it. It was rolled up and unbuttoned down far enough so that his abs were peaking out a bit. Also, he was sporting tight jeans that were outlining everything. EVERYTHING!</p><p>“ I-I-I, uhhhhh, h-h-h-huh, hehehe. I-I-I-I,” Leo stammered and stuttered, leaving Jason smirking like the devil. </p><p>Jason strutted forward and towered over Leo, still smirking. “ Cat got your tongue.” </p><p>“ Mmmm,” Leo nodded, feeling the blood rush downward and his pants tightening. </p><p>“ Lucky,” Leo could smell the alcohol on Jason’s breath, which snapped him out of his stupor and nervousness. </p><p>Nevertheless, Jason was still deeply in the moment. He leaned down and whispered into Leo’s ear. “ I wish I had your tongue. I could give you mine in return.” </p><p>Leo flushed deeply and a thought that he didn’t think he would ever think, “ Maybe Jason is into me.” </p><p>‘ Take that opportunity as it comes, you dumbass. Just do it, kiss him now,’ Leo’s mind urged him and Leo couldn’t help but obey that voice. </p><p>It may make him a terrible person for taking advantage of Jason while he was mildly intoxicated, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. Jason was standing in front of him, dressed incredibly scantily clad, asking him to exchange tongues. Leo had waited for months for this, and he wasn’t going to pass this up now. </p><p>Leo looped his arms loosely around Jason’s neck, effectively pulling the taller boy down to his height. “ Take me somewhere a little bit more private, and I will take you up on that offer.” </p><p>Immediately, Jason tugged Leo by the arm upstairs and into one of Piper’s many guest rooms and threw the door closed. </p><p>“ Are we doing this now?” Jason asked with the tiniest amount of worry in his voice. “ I want to kiss you so much, but I don’t want to pressure you.” </p><p>Leo was shocked. Jason actually wanted him. He simply nodded, and whispered a small yes. Loud enough for only Jason to hear. </p><p>“ Great,” Jason growled primitively before smashing their lips together. </p><p>Jason’s lips were soft, but firm and they had a certain sweetness to them despite the sharp alcohol that was the dominant flavour on them. Their kiss was passionate and rough, their lips moving almost completely in sync. Jason seemed to be holding back for Leo, allowing the small boy to take control of the movement. </p><p>Leo nipped softly at Jason’s lips, trying to show Jason how much he wanted this. Jason responded positively by biting back harder and adding a little bit of tongue into his own into their kiss. </p><p>“ Jason,” Leo gasped as they pulled away. “ How far is this going?” </p><p>Jason pecked his lips. “ This can go as far as you want. I want all of you and you are the one deciding the limits. We can go as far as you want, Baby. I want all of you.” </p><p>Leo smiled as moved the backward to the bed and sat on the edge by, Jason standing above him and leaning down again to reconnect their lips. This time, the kiss was just as passionate, but it was clear something more was going to happen.</p>
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<a name="section0024"><h2>24. Give and Take</h2></a>
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    <p>Jason’s entire body was on fire as Leo kissed him. The small boy’s lips were so soft, they were like pillows and were warmer than anything Jason had ever felt. </p><p>Jason pressed Leo against his chest, forcing his boyfriend to gently arch his back into Jason’s chest, rubbing their crotches together. Leo whined sweetly at the feeling of their erections rubbing together. </p><p>Jason swore he was going to implode at the noises Leo was making. He had never been with a boy this way before, but it was nothing like being with a girl. Leo’s body was ten times more sensitive than any girl he’d ever been with. He could fit Leo’s waist almost perfectly in his two hands. </p><p>“ J-j-jason, you’ve never been with a boy before. Are you sure you want this? You are kind of drunk, I don’t want to take advantage of you,” Leo asked softly. If Jason hadn’t been completely sure before Leo had asked, he was now. Here was this beautiful, exquisite, handsome boy in front of him, who was clinging to his neck and arching into Jason’s own body like he needed to attach himself there. </p><p>“ Leo, I’m so completely sober because of you. The only thing I am drunk on, if how amazing you look right now. I can’t express how I feel, because I have never done anything like this before. This is perfection, it’s that simple,” Jason promised, pecking Leo on both cheeks to seal the deal. </p><p>“ Okay, if you’re really sure, then I just want to make it special for you,” Leo said sweetly. He gently wrapped his arms around Jason’s neck, drawing Jason close enough to pull him onto the bed on top of Leo, who laid down to accommodate  his large boyfriend. </p><p>Jason chuckled before kissing Leo slightly. “ Leo, how is this supposed to work? I’m not really sure how it works between boys.” </p><p>Leo starting laughing hysterically. “ This is my first time, I don’t know how it works either. I guess I can just do what the girls do.” </p><p>Jason laughed, “ This isn’t just about me.” Slowly Jason pecked a line down Leo’s neck, each kiss drawing small shiver from Leo until Jason pecked a particular spot that make Leo moan slightly. “ I want to make you feel better than ever, especially if it’s your first time. I want to make it perfect for you, a perfect experience for a perfect boy.” </p><p>Leo smiled loopily and pawed at Jason’s chest. “ Just shut up and take your shirt off. If this is my night, I want to look at you.” </p><p>Jason ripped his shirt over his head, and Leo could’ve sworn he heard a seam tearing as it landed on the floor. Just as the shirt hit the floor, Jason and Leo felt a trance come over them. It was as if their movements, which had been clunky and a little bit awkward, had now slipped into a rhythm of their own. </p><p>Jason gently pushed Leo up until he was resting of the pillows looking down at Jason, who was holding himself up over Leo’s torso. “ Now, it’s time to get all of this off. I want to kiss every inch of your body,” Jason mumbled against the half exposed skin of Leo’s torso. He dragged his lips along the soft lines that defined Leo’s faint abs. </p><p>Leo moaned and pulled his shirts over his head, not taking the time to do them both separately. With a little bit of shuffling on Jason’s part, Leo’s pants were also off, leaving him in his boxer briefs.  </p><p>“ Leo, I’m gonna give you a bowjob. Is that okay?” Leo nodded quickly, and Jason wasted no time pulling Leo’s boxer briefs off and throwing them on the floor. </p><p>Leo shivered, “ Jason, it’s cold. Do something.” </p><p>Jason obliged, licking a long stripe from the base of Leo’s cock to his tip, taking the tip in his mouth. It was weird for Jason, to be on the giving end of something like this, instead of receiving. It didn’t taste great, and Leo’s dick was both warm and heavy. Although, the constant moaning, gasping and shuttering Leo was making above him made it all worth it. As did the small spurts of salty precum that was leaking into Jason’s mouth as he continued to suck and lick, inching down a little further every once and a while. </p><p>“ J-j-jason! Aah,” Leo moaned, gripping the sheets on either side of him. Jason looked up to see Leo with heavily lidded eyes. “ D-d-don’t look at me like that. It’s downright sinful.” </p><p>Jason hummed in response before pulling off, “ You think so, because everything you’re doing right now is making me want to something downright sinful.” </p><p>Leo brought Jason up to eye level with himself, “ That sounds pretty good.” Leo used up all his strength to turn Jason over, before placing himself just above Jason’s knees. “ Although, I do want to return the favour,” Leo slipped both Jason’s underwear and boxers off. “ Can’t have you showing me up. I am the gay one in the this relationship after all.” </p><p>Jason laughed slightly at Leo. However, the whole thing became no laughing matter when Leo slid all the way down and took Jason in his mouth in one fell swoop. “ Fuuuuuuuuck.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>So yeah, I just wrote five different versions of an unabshed blowjob and porn scene. So I'm gonna go and die in a hole now. </p><p>Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0025"><h2>25. Finally Over</h2></a>
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    <p>“ Aargh, what’s going on? My head feels like there’s a rock concert going on inside us,” Jason groaned, not even managing to sit up in bed. </p><p>Last had been wild for him, but he was glad he hadn’t been drunk enough to forget everything that had happened with Leo, but the pounding in his head was still punishing him thoroughly. It was worth it though, to see Leo sleeping peacefully next to him, curled up in the sheets with hickies littering his neck. </p><p>He couldn’t help but admire the boy laying next to him. There was something strange about the way Jason felt about Leo. It wasn’t like he felt before Piper, who he wanted to be around all the time, but he felt nothing when she was gone and he didn’t feel a particular need to be close to her or intimidate with her. </p><p>They were essentially just really good friends who kissed each other on the cheek occasionally. With Leo though, he felt an urge to be with him as often as possible. He loved the person that he became around Leo, and he loved the way that being with Leo pushed him to become a better person around everyone else. </p><p>And now that last night he’d seen that side of Leo, he couldn’t help but want to have more and more of every side of him. </p><p>“ Jaaaaaasonnnnnn,” Leo preened like a cat, his voice was slightly hoarse, and a little deeper than normal, but it was still soft and gentle in it’s usual way. “ It’s too early to be awake. Come and snuggle me. Please.”</p><p>There was no way Jason could refuse that pleading, “ I’m sorry Leo, I did my best not to wake you.” Jason laid down beside Leo and spooned him. “ Better.” </p><p>Leo nodded and tucked himself into Jason’s chest. “ How come you only call me Leo. Never any cute pet names.” </p><p>Jason froze. Leo sounded hurt that Jason only ever called him by his name. “ I’m sorry. What do you want me to call you?” </p><p>Leo shrugged as well as he could in Jason’s embrace, “ I don’t want you to do because I want you to, I want to do it because you want to do it.” </p><p>Jason chuckled and kissed the exposed skin of Leo’s collarbone. “ Leo, I want you to feel like the most special and adored person on planet earth at all times. If you want to be call something like Pumpkin, or Baby, or Sugar, then I want to do that for you.” </p><p>Leo pulled away with a smile. “ You don’t really mean that. You don’t even like me even though we are dating. I basically forced me into this.” </p><p>Jason sat up and placed Leo on his lap. When Leo shivered, Jason pulled the blankets around him. “ I adore everything about you Leo. I didn’t use labels before dating you because I always just followed my heart. I understand why you thought that I was straight, but Leo, dating you has only made my life better and better.” </p><p>Leo sniffled, “ You mean that?” </p><p>“ Leo I want you to understand that I have fallen for you. Hard,” Jason reassured. “ There is no way on earth that I am straight, because I think you are the most amazing creature on earth. I want to hold your hand, and take you on dates, kiss you, appreciate you and give you everything you could ever desire. I don’t know how to tell you how I feel about you, but it’s not friendship.” </p><p>Leo melted underneath Jason’s burning stare. He didn’t want to start crying in front of Jason. He had done that too many times before. He couldn’t control his emotions though, and he burst into tears. “ Y-y-you really m-m-mean that. I don’t know what to say. I can’t express the way that knowing you like me feels. I like you to, and not in a friendly sort of way.” </p><p>***</p><p>“ I told you he would fall for you, I was right,” Piper whispered, even though she didn’t need to. Their friends were all being way too loud for anyone to notice. </p><p>At the beginning of the school year that right now, he’d been sitting with Jason’s friends, who he now called his own, talking to his boyfriends ex, admitting that she was right that Jason could fall for him, he would’ve laughed that person out of the room. But now, after having lived through every step of the way, he knew that it wasn’t even as simple as it sounded. </p><p>Leo laughed and put his hands up in surrender, “ Yeah, yeah, yeah Pipes, you were right.” </p><p>Shin slid into Leo’s left side with way too much force, “ What was Piper right about?” </p><p>Before Leo could answer, Jason butted in as well, “ Piper thought I would end up falling for Leo, and she was correct. Love ya, Babe.” </p><p>Leo blushed, “ Love you too, Jason.” </p><p>Piper was the first to break Jason and Leo’s blush-fest, “ Well I’m I’m happy for you two, but that was disgusting.” </p><p>Shin and Piper fist bumped, “ I completely agree.” </p><p>The End.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>So I'm working on a small accompanying story about Shin and Nico for @ShadowFox11 because they said they ship Shin and Nico and I didn't really have enough time in this story to write something for them. Sorry. </p><p>Anyway, hope you enjoyed this story.</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hope you enjoyed the chapter &gt;:3 I will try to get the rest of them up as fast as possible :) Have a nice day/night/afternoon</p></blockquote></div></div>
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